Serum N-glycan markers for diagnosing liver fibrosis induced by hepatitis B virus

BACKGROUNDHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the primary cause of hepatitis with chronic HBV infection, which may develop into liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.Detection of early-stage fibrosis related to HBV infection is of great clinical significance to block the progression of liver lesion.Direct liver biopsy is regarded as the gold standard to detect and assess fibrosis; however, this method is invasive and prone to clinical sampling error.In order to address these issues, we attempted to find more convenient and effective serum markers for detecting HBV-induced early-stage liver fibrosis. AIMTo investigate serum N-glycan profiling related to HBV-induced liver fibrosis and verify multiparameter diagnostic models related to serum N-glycan changes. METHODSN-glycan profiles from the sera of 432 HBV-infected patients with liver fibrosis were analyzed.Significant changed N-glycan levels (peaks) (P < 0.05) in different