High serum leptin is an independent risk factor for non-response patients with low viremia to antiviral treatment in chronic hepatitis C

Figure 1 Effectiveness of IFN and serum leptin level in subjects with a low viremia level. NR: Non-responder group for IFN therapy; SR: Sustained responder group. ^aP < 0.05, NR vs SR. Mann-Whitney U-test.

Figure 2 Histopathological parameters and serum leptin level. A: Hepatic steatosis and serum leptin level. Steatosis was evaluated by the Adinolfi grading system in which steatosis is graded from 0 to 4 based on the percentage of hepatocytes involved. There were significant relationships between leptin level and hepatic steatosis evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis test (^bP < 0.01, steatosis 1 vs 2 vs 3 vs 4); B: Necroinflammatory activity and serum leptin level. There were significant relationships between leptin level and activity grading evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis test (P < 0.05). The scoring system includes the semi-quantitative assessment of liver disease grading of histopathological inflammatory activity (1: mild, 2: moderate, 3: severe activity; ^aP < 0.05, activity 1 vs 2 vs 3); C: Fibrosis and serum leptin level. F1: Fibrosis is located to the portal tract; F2: fibrosis is located septally with distinct widening of portal fields; F3: fibrosis extended portally to the portal; F4: liver cirrhosis. There was no relationship between leptin level and liver fibrotic staging evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis test. NS: not significant.