highly significantP < 0.0001
While we could not find any biological explanation for this result, we observed that liver MALAT1 expression was significantly and negatively correlated with the BMI of all patients included in the study; this was obvious because the difference between the BMI values of the two groups of patients was highly significant (BMI in patients who were morbidly obese was 50.92 ± 11.48 kg/m 2 compared to 32.48 ± 6.01 kg/m 2 measured for patients with MetS; P < 0.0001).