High serum resistin in chronic viral hepatitis is not a marker of metabolic disorder.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The role of resistin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone, in insulin resistance and in inflammation is controversial. In chronic hepatitis C, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and liver steatosis are frequent and inconsistently correlated to circulating resistin levels. In this study we assessed if viral aetiology and host metabolic parameters influence serum resistin in patients with HCV- and HBV- related chronic hepatitis. METHODOLOGY: Serum resistin was measured by ELISA and correlated to viral aetiology, age, gender, BMI, HOMA-IR, liver steatosis, hepatitis staging and grading, blood glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol in 43 patients with chronic hepatitis C, in 16 with chronic hepatitis B and in 29 healthy controls. RESULTS: In both groups of patients resistin was significantly higher than in controls, with higher values in HBV- than in HCV-patients (p = 0.0007). Resistin levels were correlated to aetiology and, inversely, to age (p = 0.026), diabetes (p = 0.036) and steatosis (p = 0.029). Multiple regression analysis showed that resistin concentration was dependent only on the aetiology of liver disease (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In chronic viral hepatitis serum resistin levels are high and not associated with altered metabolic parameters or with the histological activity of the disease. The meaning of higher resistin in HBV- than in HCV- chronic hepatitis is unclear.

Insulin-like growth factor-II is a useful marker to detect hepatocellular carcinoma?

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a typical hypervascular tumor. The utility of serum alpha-fetoprotein (α-FP) in its detection is questionable. Over-expression and high circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) were reported in tissue and in serum of patients with HCC. We investigated the diagnostic application of IGF-II in the diagnosis of HCC. METHODS: Serum IGF-II and α-FP levels were measured in 178 patients (82 with HCC and 96 with liver cirrhosis) and in 30 healthy controls. Spearman test, non parametric combination test and confidence interval analysis were used for statistical evaluation of data. RESULTS: The best cut-off values selected by ROC curves were 796 ng/ml for IGF-II and 132 ng/ml for α-FP. IGF-II mean values were higher in patients with HCC than in those with liver cirrhosis (LC) (p=0.0001) but lower in LC than in controls (p=0.0001). Serum IGF-II levels above cut-off were found in 22% of patients with HCC, in 9.3% of those with cirrhosis and in 20% of controls. α-FP serum levels >132 ng/ml were observed in 48% of HCC, in 3.1% of LC and in none of control group. By correlation study, serum IGF-II levels were significantly correlated with serum α-FP levels (r=0.427, p=0.0001) and with nodules' diameter (r=0.252, p=0.0130) but not with nodules' number (p>0.050). Finally, IGF-II showed lower sensitivity, specificity and predictive values than α-FP. CONCLUSION: Circulating IGF-II is not a useful marker for HCC. Further researches are however needed to evaluate its diagnostic accuracy before and after nutritional adjustment.