Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 21, 2026
Surgical Procedures for a Rat Model of Partial Orthotopic Liver Transplantation with Hepatic Arterial Reconstruction
Published on: March 7, 2013
Change in alpha glutathione s-transferase levels during liver resection
Taketoshi Suehiro1, Takashi Matsumata, Yasunori Shikada
1Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. tsuehiro@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
Background/Aims:
Alpha-glutathione s-transferase (GST) is a 50,000-kDa cytosol protein of the hepatocytes. It comprises 5% of the soluble protein of hepatocytes and is readily released in response to injury. Its half-life time is 60 minutes (AST: 47 hrs, ALT: 22 hrs). The aim of this study is to clarify the usefulness of GST measurement during liver resection. We obtained data from 26 patients undergoing liver resection and compared GST levels with AST and ALT levels.
Methodology:
Patients included 15 hepatocellular carcinoma, 5 cholangiocellular carcinoma and 6 metastatic cancers (4: colon, 2: stomach). We performed lobectomy for 11, segmentectomy for 5 and partial resection for 10 patients. From these patients, blood samples were collected before surgery, beginning of resection, end of resection, 15, 30, 60 min after resection, end of surgery, 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 hr after operation and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14 postoperative days (POD). GST (Biotrin, Ireland) levels in the serum samples were determined by an ELISA. We also measured AST, ALT levels from the same set of samples.
Results:
At the end of resection, GST showed highest level and quickly decreased at 1 hr after operation. On the other hand, AST and ALT showed peak levels at 12 hr after operation.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that perioperative GST measurement may be a sensitive and useful marker to evaluate liver function after liver resection.
