title: Serum hyaluronan as a possible biomarker of liver insufficiency in cirrhotic patients.
abstract: Hepatic hyaluronan is a glycosaminoglycan synthesised in the liver mainly by mesenchymal cells and degraded by liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. Serum hyaluronan was measured, using enzyme-linked binding protein assay (Chugai, Japan) in 30 patients with cirrhosis of different etiologies (alcohol n = 15, primary biliary cirrhosis n = 4, hepatitis B n = 5, hepatitis C n = 6). Hyaluronan levels were significantly higher in patients with liver cirrhosis (398 +/- 375.4 ng/ml) than in the controls (36.5 +/- 26.9 ng/ml). There was no significant difference in hialuronan levels between the different etiologies of the disease. Hyaluronan level increased proportionally to the severity of cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Medical Academy of Białystok, Białystok, Poland. oliwa@amb.ac.bialystok.pl
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grzeszczuk
authors.forename: Sławomir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chlabicz
authors.forename: Anatol
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Panasiuk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017093:Liver Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid