The Relationship Between Liver Tissue Expression,Serum Level Of TGF-β₁ And The Hepatic Fibrosis In Patients With Viral Hepatitis

Objective:There are some reports that TGF-β₁ is related to hepatic fibrosis, which are based on animal experiment and cell culture. The liver tissue and serum levels of TGF-β₁ in patients with viral hepatitis were detected in this research. The relationship between TGF-β₁ and the starting,developing of hepatic fibrosis was studied. Detection of hepatic,serum level of TGF-β₁ and the normal fibrosis marker(PCâ…¢,HA,LN,Câ…£), which one is more valuable and helpful? Clinical study evidence was provided in this research. More study about anti-fibrosis by blocking TGF-β₁ should be carried out.Methods: 92 patients with viral hepatitis were selected in this research, in which 78 were male,14 were female, aging 16～79(37.8±16.3).According to the diagnosing criterion of viral hepatitis which was revised in 2000, 23patients were diagnosed as chronic mild hepatitis, 26 were chronic moderate hepatitis, 18 were chronic severe hepatitis, 25 were hepatic cirrhosis.Etiologic diagnosis:88were hepatitis B, 3 were hepatitis C, 1 was hepatitis B combined with hepatitis C. Liver puncture was performed in 31 patients, tissue specimens were all longer than 1 centimeter, serum sample was also obtained from these patients. Liver tissue specimens were stabilized by 10% formaldehyde and imbedded by paraffin. Serum samples were stored in －20℃ refrigeratre. The serum samples of other 61 patients were also obtained and stored in same condition. Normal HE staining, hepatic collagen staining (Masson's three colors) and TGF-β₁ immunohistochemistry staining of the liver tissue specimens were performed, morphometric quantitative measurements of hepatic histological collagen and TGF-β₁ were made. The serum level of TGF-β₁ was detected by ELISA (enzyme linked immnosorbent assay).The serum levels of PCâ…¢,HA,LN and Câ…£ were detected by RIA (radio immunoassay) . The liver function and PTA were also detected. Statistics work was done with SPSS.10.0 statistical software.Results:(1) The results of immunohistochemistry staining and morphometric quantitative measurements of hepatic TGF-β₁:hepatic TGF-β₁ positive staining matter appeared brown。No positive staining cell was found in Stage 0(S0) fibrosis specimens. In the Stage 1(S1) and 2 (S2) fibrosis specimens, positive staining matter appeared in the hepatic sinusoid wall, cells near thesinusoid, necrosis area and the portal area. In the S3 and S4 specimens, positive staining matter was also found in hepatocyte and fibrous septum, the color was deeper than S1 and S2, in S4 , there was much more positive matter than S3. Grouping on the basis of fibrosis stage , the surface density of hepatic TGF-β₁ increased in line with the elevation of fibrosis stage, groups of S1,S2,S3,S4 compared with group of S0, group of S3 compared with group of S1,S2, groups of S4 compared with groups of S1,S2,S3, the differences were all notable (P<0.05). Grouping on the basis of inflammation grade(G), the surface density of groups G1,G2,G3,G4 were all higher than group G0(P<0.05),but there were no notable differences between every two groups of groups G1,G2,G3,G4(P>0.05).The results indicated that there was a close positive correlation between the expression level of hepatic TGF-β₁ and the stage of the hepatic fibrosis , but between the expression level of hepatic TGF-β₁ and the grade of hepatic inflammation, no clear correlation existed.(2)The results of morphometric quantitative measurement of hepatic histological collagenï¼›Grouping on the basis of fibrosis stage , the surface density of collagen increased successively from group S0 to S4, except between group S2 and groups S1,S3(P>0.05), the comparing results between every other two groups allshowed significant differences(P<0.05). The results showed that the quantity of hepatic collagen increased in line with the elevation of hepatic fibrosis stage.(3) There was a closely positive correlation between the levels of TGF-β₁ in hepatic tissue and serum, the coefficient was 0.8...