{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T02:49:24Z","timestamp":1790563764320,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":111,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,2]],"date-time":"2021-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1635811200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common hepatic pathology in industrialized countries, affecting about 25% of the general population. NAFLD is a benign condition, however, it could evolve toward more serious diseases, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, and finally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver biopsy is still the gold standard for NAFLD diagnosis. Due to the risks associated with liver biopsy and the impossibility to apply it on a large scale, it is now necessary to identify non-invasive biomarkers, which may reliably identify patients at higher risk of progression. Therefore, several lines of research have tried to address this issue by identifying novel biomarkers using omics approaches, including lipidomics, metabolomics and RNA molecules\u2019 profiling. Thus, in this review, we firstly report the conventional biomarkers used in clinical practice for NAFL and NASH diagnosis as well as fibrosis staging, and secondly, we pay attention to novel biomarkers discovered through omics approaches with a particular focus on RNA biomarkers (microRNAs, long-noncoding RNAs), showing promising diagnostic performance for NAFL\/NASH diagnosis and fibrosis staging.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms222111905","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,2]],"date-time":"2021-11-02T12:39:42Z","timestamp":1635856782000},"page":"11905","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":96,"title":["Clinical and Molecular Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Staging of NAFLD"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5436-8279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefania","family":"Di Mauro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4483-3365","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandra","family":"Scamporrino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6593-8823","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agnese","family":"Filippello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Antonino","family":"Di Pino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7023-3649","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberto","family":"Scicali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4149-9488","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberta","family":"Malaguarnera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, \u201cKore\u201d University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3313-8543","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Purrello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1781-0902","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Salvatore","family":"Piro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Filippello, A., Scamporrino, A., Di Mauro, S., Malaguarnera, R., Di Pino, A., Scicali, R., Purrello, F., and Piro, S. 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