The metabolic influence of duodenal mucosal resurfacing for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide with decreased life expectancy. Duodenal mucosal resurfacing (DMR) has been associated with metabolic improvement in glycemic and hepatic parameters of type 2 diabetes, but the metabolic impact of DMR for NAFLD/NASH remains inconclusive. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate metabolic effects of DMR in patients with NAFLD/NASH. METHODS: Three major bibliographic databases were reviewed for enrollment of trials prior to January 28, 2022. We included adults with biopsy-proven NAFLD/NASH or liver magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) >5% at baseline and focused on the metabolic difference of MRI-PDFF at 12 weeks, and HbA1c or homeostatic model assessment index for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) at 24 weeks. RESULTS: Two studies involved a total of 67 participants for analysis. When compared with pre-intervention status, mean difference of MRI-PDFF, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR after DMR were −2.22 (95% CI: −12.79~8.34), −0.32% (95% CI: −0.80~0.16), and 0.15 (95% CI: −5.11~5.41) without statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with NAFLD/NASH, DMR has the trend to improve liver fat at 12 weeks, and glycemic control in terms of HbA1c level at 24 weeks based on a very low quality of evidence.