ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1566345
Mediating Role of Systemic Immune-Inflammation index Between heavy metal exposure and hepatic steatosis/hepatic fibrosis: evidence from NHANES 2005-2020
Provisionally accepted
- 1Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
- 2Qiqihar Medical University, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study, based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), analyzed associations between 10 heavy metals and hepatic injury in 5,613 adults, with a focus on the mediating role of the Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII). Using partial correlation analysis, weighted linear regression, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, and mediation effect models, key findings revealed: SII showed significant negative correlations with hepatic fibrosis markers (FIB-4: r=-0.290; NFS: r=-0.382, both P<0.001) but no association with hepatic steatosis indices. Arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), and cesium (Cs) were identified as critical metals linking fibrosis indicators and SII. As mediated its pro-fibrotic effects by completely suppressing SII (OR=0.0220-0.0581), while Co promoted NFS risk through complete mediation by SII (Q2 vs Q1 OR=1.26).Conversely, Cs exhibited anti-fibrotic protection via complete positive mediation through SII. The findings demonstrate that heavy metals differentially regulate immune-inflammatory pathways to influence hepatic fibrosis progression, providing 2 new evidence for the mechanisms of environmental exposure-induced hepatic injury.
Keywords: Hepatic Steatosis, hepatic fibrosis, Systemic immune verification index, heavy metal, Mediating effect
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, He, Zheng, Li, Li, Nian and Wang. 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: Kewei Wang, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.