ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1646790
Impaired Thyroid Hormone Sensitivity is Associated with the Degrees of Fatty Infiltration in Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD)
Provisionally accepted
Li Ying1*
Wang Fang2- 1Hefei No.1 People's Hospital, Hefei, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC: Anhui Provincial Hospital, hefei, China
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Background As a chronic disease, MASLD endangers human health seriously with a complex pathogenesis. Thyroid hormones (THs) play significant roles in this process. We aimed to analyze the correlation between TH sensitivity and the degrees of fatty infiltration in MASLD. Methods We conducted a retrospective study on a sample of 13,144 individuals who underwent physical examinations. Thyroid functions, liver and kidney functions, blood lipids and glucose were measured using chemiluminescence methods TH sensitivity indexes including Free triiodothyronine to free thyroxine ratio (FT3/FT4), Thyroid Feedback Quantile-based Index (TFQI), Thyroid stimulating hormone Index (TSHI) and Thyrotropin Thyroxine Resistance Index (TT4RI) were calculated. The degrees of liver fatty infiltration (Controlled attenuation parameters, CAP) were determined by Liver Shear Wave Quantification Ultrasonography. Conducting statistical analysis of the above data. Results FT3/FT4, TFQI, TSHI and TT4RI showed significant increased trends with the increase of CAP levels (P<0.001). In males, high levels of CAP were negatively correlated with FT3/FT4 (β (95%CI): -0.005 (-0.008, -0.002) , P=0.0004), but positively correlated with TSHI (β (95%CI): 0.019 (0.002, 0.036), P=0.0248) and TFQI (β (95%CI): 0.015 (0.003, 0.027), P=0.01371). In BMI<28kg/m2 group, low levels of CAP were positively correlated with FT3/FT4 (β (95%CI): 0.002 (0.002, 0.003), P<0.00001), while high levels of CAP were positively correlated with TFQI (β (95%CI): 0.016 (0.000, 0.031), P=0.04805). Conclusions TH sensitivity is significantly impaired in MASLD, this phenomenon is more pronounced in males and individuals with BMI<28kg/m2.
Keywords: Controlled attenuation parameters, Liver fatty infiltration, metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease, Thyroid hormone sensitivity, thyroid feedback quantile-based Index
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ying and Fang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Li Ying, Hefei No.1 People's Hospital, Hefei, China
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