Influence of orthotopic liver transplantation on serum vitamin A levels in patients with chronic liver disease.
BACKGROUND
Low serum vitamin A levels are observed in many liver diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and alcoholic liver disease. The aim of this study was to investigate serum vitamin A in patients with advanced liver diseases before and after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).


METHODS
Serum vitamin A (retinol) concentrations were investigated in 54 patients before (OLT) and in 21 patients 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks and 2 and 3 months after OLT. Ten healthy subjects and 19 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) served as control groups.


RESULTS
The mean serum retinol concentration before OLT was 0.64 +/- 0.1 mumol/l in patients with alcoholic and postnecrotic cirrhosis (n = 24), 1.06 +/- 0.48 mumol/l in patients with PBC (n = 14), 0.96 +/- 0.64 mumol/l in sclerosing cholangitis (n = 7), and 1.02 +/- 0.73 mumol/l in liver cancer (n = 9). These results were significantly lower than in healthy controls (2.34 +/- 0.54 mumol/l) and patients with IBD (2.7 +/- 0.74 mumol/l) (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
After OLT, serum retinol levels increased significantly already after 1 week (1.4 +/- 0.1 mumol/l) (p < 0.001), normalized after 2 weeks (2.2 +/- 0.4 mumol/l), and remained normal during the observation.
Janczewska
I
I
Dept. of Medicine, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden.
Ericzon
B G
BG
Eriksson
L S
LS
D000328:Adult; D015209:Cholangitis, Sclerosing / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery*; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000097:blood; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000097:blood*
D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins; D014801:Vitamin A