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Soluble CD146, a novel endothelial marker, is related to the severity of liver disease
Efrossini Nomikou1, Alexandra Alexopoulou, Larisa Vasilieva
1First Regional Transfusion and Haemophilia Centre, Hippokration General Hospital , Athens , Greece.
Insights
Soluble CD146 (sCD146) shows promise as an inexpensive biomarker for diagnosing liver cirrhosis and assessing disease severity. Higher sCD146 levels indicate more advanced liver disease in patients with cirrhosis.
Area of Science:
- Hepatology
- Biomarker Discovery
- Clinical Diagnostics
Background:
- Chronic liver disease (CLD) progression involves angiogenesis and inflammation.
- Soluble CD146 (sCD146), a novel endothelial junction component, is implicated in endothelial proliferation.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate sCD146 performance in assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.
- Determine the relationship between sCD146 levels and liver disease severity in cirrhotic patients.
Main Methods:
- sCD146 levels measured using an immunoenzymatic technique.
- Study included 62 cirrhosis patients, 43 CLD patients, and 27 healthy controls.
Main Results:
- Cirrhosis patients had higher median sCD146 (639 ng/ml) vs. non-cirrhotics (317 ng/ml).
- sCD146 demonstrated good diagnostic accuracy for cirrhosis (AUROC: 0.838) and differentiating compensated/decompensated stages (AUROC: 0.866).
- sCD146 correlated positively with AST, bilirubin, INR, and MELD scores in cirrhotics.
Conclusions:
- sCD146 serves as a surrogate, inexpensive biomarker for cirrhosis diagnosis.
- sCD146 levels correlate with liver disease severity in cirrhotic patients.
- Further research is needed to define sCD146's clinical utility.
Objectives:
Angiogenesis and inflammation have been involved in the progression of fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Soluble CD146 (sCD146), a biomarker that was recently characterized as a novel component of the endothelial junction is implicated in endothelial proliferation. Our study evaluates the performance of sCD146 in assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, and determines if its levels are related to the severity of liver disease in patients with cirrhosis.
Material And Methods:
sCD146 levels were determined by a commercially available immunoenzymatic technique in 62 consecutive patients with cirrhosis, 43 patients with CLD and 27 healthy controls.
Results:
Patients with cirrhosis compared to non-cirrhotics with CLD had a higher median sCD146 concentration (639 vs. 317 ng/ml). In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the cut-off of 412 ng/ml showed a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 75% for diagnosis of cirrhosis, offering good diagnostic accuracy (area under the ROC curve [AUROC: 0.838]). Patients with compensated compared to those with decompensated cirrhosis had a lower median sCD146 concentration (399 vs. 848 ng/ml, respectively). A cut-off of 534 ng/ml offered a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 78% for differentiating compensated from decompensated cirrhosis (AUROC: 0.866). Furthermore, in cirrhotics, sCD146 correlated positively with AST, bilirubin levels and most importantly with international normalized ratio and model for end-stage liver disease (r = 0.648, p < 0.001 and r = 0.567, p < 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion:
sCD146 can be used as a surrogate, inexpensive biomarker for the diagnosis of cirrhosis. It is also well correlated with severity of liver disease in cirrhotic patients. Further studies are needed to define its role in clinical practice.
