The associations of total testosterone with probable nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease fibrotic progression in men with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Testosterone has an impact on metabolic disorders and men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are predisposed to hypogonadism; meanwhile, patients with T2DM have higher risk of NAFLD. Therefore, we speculate that testosterone may affect the progression of NAFLD in T2DM patients and we aim to investigate whether total testosterone is associated with NAFLD progression in men with T2DM. Methods A cross-sectional study. A total of 1782 male participants with T2DM were enrolled from seven communities in Shanghai. Probable nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) was defined by the concurrence of NAFLD and metabolic syndrome (MetS). NAFLD fibrosis score was used to identify patients with probable advanced fibrosis. Multinomial logistic regression and ordinal logistic regression was used to measure the association of total testosterone (independent variable) and the progression category of NAFLD (dependent variable). Results In male, TT quartiles were negatively associated with probable NASH (Q1 vs. Q4 OR 2.07 95% CI 1.31–3.28, P for trend = 0.001) and inflammatory progression of NAFLD with OR of 1 SD increment of ln (TT) 0.81 (95% CI 0.72–0.92, P for trend < 0.001), but positively with fibrotic progression (Q1 vs. Q4 OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.29–0.72, P for trend = 0.001) with OR of 1 SD increment of ln (TT) 1.24 (95% CI 1.07–1.45). According to stratified analyses, for inflammatory progression, the interactions of age strata, duration of diabetes strata, and dyslipidemia status with 1 SD increment of ln (TT) were significant ( P for interaction 0.007, 0.003, and 0.012, respectively); as for fibrotic progression, we found no interactions (all P for interaction ≥ 0.05). Conclusions Different associations between TT and inflammatory and fibrotic progression of NAFLD in male were observed, suggesting different roles of TT in inflammatory and fibrotic stages of NAFLD.