ArticleClinical and molecular hepatology2020
The association of the serum levels of myostatin, follistatin, and interleukin-6 with sarcopenia, and their impacts on survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Article in Clinical and molecular hepatology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of body composition on clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Hepatology communications · 2026Pooled it
- Association of interleukin-6 with sarcopenia and its components in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies.Annals of medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Pre-Therapeutic Sarcopenia among Cancer Patients: An Up-to-Date Meta-Analysis of Prevalence and Predictive Value during Cancer Treatment.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Association between sarcopenia and clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: an updated meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Impact of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity on survival in patients with primary liver cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Association between sarcopenia and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Myokine Circulating Levels in Postmenopausal Women with Overweight or Obesity: Effects of Resistance Training and/or DHA-RichNutrients · 2025Trial
- The relationship between sarcopenia detected in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients and serum levels of IL6, IGF-1 and myostatin.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- High Expression of Follistatin is a Risk Factor Predicting Poor Overall Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients.Journal of hepatocellular carcinoma · 2026Article
- Alterations in the Myokine Concentrations in Relation to Sarcopenia and Sleep Disturbances: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Alpha-Ketoisocaproate Attenuates Muscle Atrophy in Cancer Cachexia Models.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Article
- The association between shorter disease course and sarcopenia in women with endometriosis: a retrospective analysis of NHANES 1999-2006.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- New insights into biomarkers and risk stratification to predict hepatocellular cancer.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Review
- The Role of Myokines in Liver Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- State-of-the-art insights into myokines as biomarkers of sarcopenia: a literature review.International journal of physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology · 2025Review
- The emerging role of exercise preconditioning in preventing skeletal muscle atrophy.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Exerkines and myokines in aging sarcopenia.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- NADPH oxidase 4 deficiency promotes hepatocellular carcinoma arising from hepatic fibrosis by inducing M2-macrophages in the tumor microenvironment.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Chitinase-3 like-protein-1, a prognostic biomarker in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and concomitant myosteatosis.BMC cancer · 2024Article
- Follistatin-respiratory connection predicting all-cause mortality among community-dwelling middle-to-old age individuals: Results from the I-Lan Longitudinal Study.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2024Article
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10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsThe role of serum myokine levels in sarcopenia and the outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients are not clear. This study investigated the serum levels of myostatin, follistatin, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in HCC patients and their association with sarcopenia and survival.
methodsUsing prospectively collected pretreatment samples from 238 HCC patients in a hospital from 2012 to 2015, the serum levels of 3 myokines were determined and compared to 50 samples from age and sex-matched healthy controls. Sarcopenia was evaluated using the psoas muscle index (PMI) measured at the third lumbar level in the computed tomography, and clinical data were collected until 2017.
resultsThe median levels of the 3 myokines for the male and female HCC patients were as follow: myostatin (3,979.3 and 2,976.3 pg/mL), follistatin (2,118.5 and 2,174.6 pg/mL), and IL-6 (2.5 and 2.7 pg/mL), respectively. Those in the HCC patients were all significantly higher than in the healthy controls. In the HCC patient, the median PMI was 4.43 (males) and 2.17 cm2/m2 (females) with a sarcopenic prevalence of 56.4%. The serum levels of myostatin, IL-6 and follistatin in the HCC patients showed a positive, negative, and no correlation with PMI, respectively. The serum follistatin level was an independent factor for poor survival in HCC patients.
conclusionThe serum levels of myostatin, follistatin, and IL-6 and their correlation with sarcopenia and survival were presented in HCC patients for the first time. The role of the serum follistatin level as a poor prognostic biomarker warrants further study.
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