Neopterin and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type I in alcohol-induced cirrhosis

✍ Scribed by Antonio Diez-Ruiz; Gernot P. Tilz; Francisco Gutierrez-Gea; Blas Gil-Extremera; Christian Murr; Helmut Wachter; Dietmar Fuchs

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 272 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840210414

✦ Synopsis

Alcohol-induced cirrhosis (AC) is accompanied by disturbances of immune function and cytokine production.

To better define the pattern of cytokine synthesis in this disease and to relate it to the immune activation state, we measured circulating levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor p55 (sTNFR-55) and neopterin in a group of 85 patients with AC (classified according to the Child-Pugh score of severity of liver disease) and 43 healthy volunteers. Serum concentrations of sTNFR-55 and neopterin were significantly raised in patients with AC. Moreover, concentrations of sT"R-55 were significantly higher in patients with more severe disease compared with the group with lower severity. There were significant correlations between sTNFR-55 and neopterin levels in patients and controls. The results contribute to affirm the existence of an immune activation state i n AC that could be responsible for the development of the disease and clinical complications. (HEPA-