Serum laminin assayed by Slot-Blot-ELISA in patients with combined viral hepatitis C and schistosomiasis.

OBJECTIVES: Hepatic schistosomiasis and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) are the most prevalent agents causing hepatic fibrosis in humans. Laminin (LA) has been related to liver fibrosis and subsequent development of portal hypertension in chronic liver disease. There are no available data describing the pattern of laminin in combined HCV and schistosoma-infected patients, thus the rationale of this study was to assess the serum LA as an index of liver fibrosis in patients with schistosomiasis and/or chronic viral hepatitis C and to evaluate a developed Slot-Blot Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbant Assay (Slot-Blot-ELISA) as a method of estimation. DESIGNS AND METHODS: This study included four groups: group I included 34 patients with schistosomiasis, group II included 58 patients infected with HCV, group III included 68 patients with combined chronic viral hepatitis C and schistosomiasis and group IV included 50 healthy individuals who served as a control group. Serum LA was measured in the different groups quantitatively by ELISA and semi-quantitatively by Slot-Blot-ELISA. RESULTS: Significantly higher serum LA concentrations measured by ELISA were found in patients with combined chronic viral hepatitis C and schistosomiasis than in patients with either chronic HCV (P = 0.005) or schistosomiasis (P < 0.001) alone. Serum LA was significantly higher in the patient groups than the control group (P < 0.001). Serum LA concentration was positively correlated with fibrosis grading scores. Semi-quantitative results of serum LA using the developed SB-ELISA were found to have approximately the same power of ELISA results in different groups. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and efficiency of ELISA for estimation of serum LA were 85.6%, 84.0%, 94.5%, 64.6% and 90%, respectively and for SB-ELISA were 87.5%, 82.0%, 94%, 67.2% and 88%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Serum LA was significantly increased in patients coinfected with HCV and Schistosoma mansoni. The newly developed Slot-Blot-ELISA is a simple, rapid and highly sensitive assay for detection of LA in hepatic fibrosis. Moreover, all steps were performed at room temperature without the need to use expensive equipment, and this may enhance the application of this assay in screening programs. Further study is warranted for confirmation of SB-ELISA reproducibility in a large population.