SynthesisCurrent obesity reports2025
Circulating Fibroblast Growth Factor-21 in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Current obesity reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- GCKR genetic variants and circulating FGF21 identify a metabolic risk signature in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Low-Abundance Proteomics Reveal Pleiotrophin and Fibroblast Growth Factor-21 as Biomarkers of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is multifactorial. Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) has been proposed to be associated with NAFLD, but data on its circulating levels in patients with NAFLD are to date conflicting.
aimsThe synthesis and comparison of data on circulating FGF-21 between patients with NAFLD and controls without NAFLD.
methodsA comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library and Scopus, complemented by hand-searching. Forty-four observational studies with overall 15,563 participants (9548 controls and 6015 NAFLD patients) were included in the study.
resultsCirculating FGF-21 was higher in patients with NAFLD compared to controls (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.44, 0.77; p < 0.00001). Subgroup analysis showed higher FGF-21 levels in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) compared to controls (SMD: 1.30; 95% CI: 0.35, 2.24; p = 0.007), but not between hepatic steatosis and controls, or hepatic steatosis and NASH. Furthermore, the findings were more robust in the subgroup of studies with NASH-related cirrhosis than those without them (p = 0.0004). Sensitivity analysis further supported the findings. Heterogeneity was high in all comparisons. Meta-regression analyses showed that FGF-21 SMD between NAFLD patients and controls was positively associated with the rate of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus per study, and this could explain 49.2% of the heterogeneity among studies.
conclusionsCirculating FGF-21 levels were higher in NAFLD patients than controls, which may be possibly attributed to those with advanced disease (NASH and related cirrhosis). Circulating fibroblast growth factor-21 levels were higher in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease compared to controls. This is primarily attributed to the higher levels observed in patients with advanced disease (steatohepatitis and related cirrhosis).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.