Serum sCD14 as a Biomarker for Significant Liver Inflammation in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with Normal or Mildly...

CD14 is a pattern recognition receptor constitutively expressed in different types of immune cells, either in a membrane-anchored (mCD14) or in a soluble (sCD14) form. This study investigated whether hepatic CD14 expression levels were correlated with the grades of liver inflammation as well as the potential usefulness of serum sCD14 as a biomarker for predicting liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with normal or mildly elevated ALT.

A total of 216 treatment-naive CHB patients with normal or mildly elevated ALT who underwent liver biopsy were recruited. Hepatic expression level of CD14 was measured using immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR. Serum sCD14 concentrations were determined with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Correlations between hepatic CD14, serum sCD14, and liver inflammation grade were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to identify significant liver inflammation-associated factors. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess the discriminating power of serum sCD14 to significant liver inflammation in CHB patients with normal or mildly elevated ALT.

Both hepatic expression levels of CD14 and serum sCD14 concentrations significantly increased with the aggravation of liver inflammation. Moreover, hepatic expression levels of CD14, serum sCD14 concentrations, and liver inflammation grades were positively correlated with each other. Three parameters including alkaline phosphatase (ALP), neutrophil, and sCD14 were identified as independent predictors of significant liver inflammation. Subsequently, a diagnostic equation named model-sCD14 was developed incorporating sCD14 and other variables (ALP and neutrophils) with p < 0.05 in multivariate logistic analysis. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of sCD14 for predicting significant liver inflammation was 0.788 and the optimal cutoff was 27.14 ng/mL, with a sensitivity of 66.67%, a specificity of 81.70%, positive predictive value of 60.01%, and negative predictive value of 85.62%. When sCD14 was replaced by model-sCD14, the AUC value increased from 0.788 to 0.843 (z = 2.311, p = 0.021), with sensitivity of 77.78%, specificity of 77.12%, positive predictive value of 58.33%, and negative predictive value of 89.39%.

Serum sCD4 has the potential to discriminate significant liver inflammation from CHB patients with normal or mildly increased ALT levels.