Impact of Metabolic Syndrome on Fibrosis Progression in Chronic Viral Hepatitis B Infection

Many factors may increase the risk of fibrosis development in chronic viral hepatitis infections. As the burden of obesity and metabolic syndrome has been increasing in recent years, there is growing concern regarding the association between metabolic factors and chronic viral hepatitis cases. However data regarding the influence of metabolic syndrome on progression of fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is limited. Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of problems that includes insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Initially, epidemiologic data demonstrated that HBsAg-positive serostatus was positively correlated with a high risk of metabolic syndrome; later on, HBV was considered as a “metabolovirus” because the gene expression of HBV and key metabolic genes in hepatocytes was found to be similarly regulated. Metabolic syndrome is not only found to accelerate the progression of liver disease in patients with chronic HBV infection but also found to induce cirrhosis or even hepatocellular carcinoma development. This review article it is aimed to highlight the association of metabolic syndrome with chronic HBV infection.