BACKGROUND: 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-diHOME) was one of the newly found lipokines. The goal of this study was to investigate whether the 12,13-diHOME was associated with related metabolic markers of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a Chinese population with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and obesity. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled 202 subjects with T2DM. Anthropometric parameters, 12,13-diHOME, serum lipids levels, fasting blood-glucose (FBG), serum glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA<
inf>
1c<
/inf>
), fasting insulin (FINS), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), liver and kidney function parameters were collected. NAFLD was diagnosed based on abdominal ultrasonography examination results. A computer-aided ultrasound quantitative method was applied to evaluate the liver fat content (LFC). RESULTS: The number of the patients with fatty liver was 139 (68.81%) and those with non-fatty liver was 63 (31.19%). Subjects with NAFLD had a higher body mass index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), triglyceride (TG), HOMA-IR, LFC, P<
0.05 for all. But no significant difference was found in plasma 12,13-diHOME level (P=0.967), though its level trend was higher in non-NAFLD group. Plasma 12,13-diHOME was positively correlated with aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), free fatty acid (FFA), C-peptide, FINS and HOMA-IR. It was negatively correlated with height, body weight, glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and HbA<
inf>
1c<
/inf>
. CONCLUSIONS: Although 12,13-diHOME was correlated with AST, TC, HDL-C, BUN, FFA, C-peptide, FINS, HOMA-IR, eGFR and HbA<
inf>
1c<
/inf>
, there was no significant difference in 12,13-diHOME level between the two groups. However, more research should be carried on about this newly-found lipokine.