An Update of Hepatic Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma among HCV Patients in Egypt
Bothaina A. Madkour, Omar M. Sabry, Marwa S. Wahdan, Ayman H. Abdelaziz, Ali Abdel Rahim, Shereif A. Morsy, Alaa A. Gad
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ABSTRACT
Background: Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a distinguished type of liver cancer with multifactorial risks. Epidermal growth factor (EGF), Interleukin 6 (IL-6), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), CD163 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) are believed to have roles in deregulation of the inflammatory response and cancer development
Aim: To study the serum levels of five essential cytokines and growth factors; EGF, IL-6, VEFG, CD163 and TNF-α in the HCV Egyptian patients and healthy controls as well as to validate the relationship between these inflammatory biomarkers and the presence of HCC in HCV patients. Subjects and methods:
Methods: In this study we calculated the serum levels of TNF-α, EGF and IL-6 using ELISA technique as well as assessing the serum levels of VEGF, and CD163 using Human Luminex® screening assay premixed multiplex kit in a cohort of 165 subjects who were divided into 3 groups
Results: Regarding ELISA technique, there was a significant difference regarding EGF and IL-6 between the control group and the two diseased groups (p< 0.05); in EGF, the mean serum level was highest in the HCC group (631.7 pg/ml) and lowest in the control group (185.7 pg/ml). IL-6 serum values revealed highest significant levels in the HCC group (20.7 pg/ml) and lowest in the control group (4.7 pg/ml) (p<0.05). Additionally, ELISA technique's results revealed significant high levels of serum TNF-α in both HCV as well as HCC group compared to the control group with a (p<0.05), with no significance between HCC and HCV groups respectively.
Conclusion: TNF-α, EGF, IL-6, VEGF and CD 163 were increased in this cohort of Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection compared to controls but failed to establish reliable diagnostic performance for the development of HCC as sole markers in those patients. However, based on the presented results most of these molecules are probably involved in the pathogenesis of host inflammatory response to HCV infection.
Keywords: IL-6, CD163, EGF, VEGF, TNF-α, Luminex assay, ELISA, hepatitis C virus