Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of serum long non-coding ribonucleic acid taurine up-regulated gene 1 (lncRNA TUG1) in patients with liver cirrhosis and its correlation with liver function and liver fibrosis.Methods From February 2020 to June 22,92 patients with Hepatitis B cirrhosis of Child-Pugh grade C in our hospital were selected as the liver cirrhosis group,their general data were recorded,and they were grouped into mild-to-moderate group and severe group according to the degree of liver fibrosis;88 healthy subjects in our hospital were the control group.The level of serum lncRNA TUG1 was determined by fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR),an automatic biochemical analyzer was applied to measure the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),and total bilirubin (TBIL),the levels of laminin (LN),type Ⅲ procollagen peptide (PⅢP),and type Ⅳ collagen (CⅣ) were determined by ELISA;Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the correlation of serum lncRNA TUG1 with liver function indexes and liver fibrosis indexes in patients with liver cirrhosis;receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the efficacy of serum lncRNA TUG1 level in evaluating the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with liver cirrhosis;Multivariate stepwise regression analysis of factors affecting the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with cirrhosis.Results The levels of serum lncRNA TUG1,ALT,AST,TBIL,LN,PⅢP and CⅣ in the liver cirrhosis group were obviously higher than those in the control group (P<0.001).The course of liver cirrhosis,lncRNA TUG1,HBV DNA,ALT,AST,TBIL,LN,PⅢP,and CⅣ in the severe group were obviously higher than those in the mild-moderate group (P<0.05).Serum lncRNA TUG1 in patients with liver cirrhosis was positively correlated with HBV DNA,ALT,AST,TBIL,LN,PⅢP,and CⅣ (r:0.54、0.50、0.49、0.50、0.51、0.52、0.52,P<0.05).The area under the curve (AUC) of lncRNA TUG1 to evaluate the development of severe liver fibrosis in patients with liver cirrhosis was 0.91,the cutoff is 2.61.The lncRNA TUG1 and LN are related to the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with cirrhosis (P<0.05).Conclusion Serum lncRNA TUG1 level is correlated with liver function and degree of liver fibrosis in patients with liver cirrhosis.Detection of serum lncRNA TUG1 level is helpful for evaluating the development trend of liver fibrosis in patients.

Key words: liver cirrhosis; long non-coding ribonucleic acid taurine up-regulated gene 1; liver function; liver fibrosis degree