Circulating fatty acids and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic liver disease mortality in the UK Biobank

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based plasma fatty acids are objective biomarkers of many diseases. Herein, we aim to explore the associations of NMR-based plasma fatty acids with the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and chronic liver disease (CLD) mortality in 252,398 UK Biobank participants. Here we show plasma levels of n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and n-6 PUFA are negatively associated with the risk of incident HCC [HR_Q4vsQ1: 0.48 (95% CI: 0.33–0.69) and 0.48 (95% CI: 0.28–0.81), respectively] and CLD mortality [HR_Q4vsQ1: 0.21 (95% CI: 0.13–0.33) and 0.15 (95% CI: 0.08–0.30), respectively], whereas plasma levels of saturated fatty acids are positively associated with these outcomes [HR_Q4vsQ1: 3.55 (95% CI: 2.25–5.61) for HCC and 6.34 (95% CI: 3.68–10.92) for CLD mortality]. Furthermore, fibrosis stage significantly modifies the associations between PUFA and CLD mortality. This study contributes to the limited prospective evidence on the associations between plasma-specific fatty acids and end-stage liver outcomes.

Different fatty acids have been associated to liver diseases. Here, the authors show that plasma levels of different circulating fatty acids are either negatively or positively associated with the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic liver disease mortality in the UK Biobank cohort.