Serum Afamin a Novel Marker of Increased Hepatic Lipid Content.

Aim Afamin is a liver-produced glycoprotein, a potential early marker of metabolic syndrome. Here we investigated regulation of afamin in a course of the metabolic disease development and in response to 3-month exercise intervention. Methods We measured whole-body insulin sensitivity (euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp), glucose tolerance, abdominal adiposity, hepatic lipid content (magnetic resonance imaging/spectroscopy), habitual physical activity (accelerometers) and serum afamin (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) in 71 middle-aged men with obesity, prediabetes and newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Effects of 3-month exercise were investigated in 22 overweight-to-obese middle-aged individuals (16M/6F). Results Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, but not obesity, were associated with increased serum afamin (p 63% of its variability. Exercise-related changes in afamin were paralleled by reciprocal changes in insulinemia, insulin resistance and visceral adiposity. No significant change in hepatic lipid content was observed. Conclusions Subjects with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes had the highest serum afamin levels. Afamin was more tightly related to hepatic lipid accumulation, liver damage and insulin resistance than to obesity.