title: Profile of hepatocyte growth factor in patients with obstructive jaundice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatocyte growth factor is a potent growth-stimulating factor of many kinds of tissue. Hepatocyte growth factor was demonstrated in the blood of various liver diseases, and its concentration was reported to correlate with liver function after partial hepatectomy. In this study, we monitor the dynamics of bile hepatocyte growth factor in patients with obstructive jaundice.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a university hospital, 68 paired blood and bile samples from 42 patients with hyperbilirubinemia were determined with ELISA. The hepatocyte growth factor bile/blood ratio and both daily hepatocyte growth factor clearance and output were calculated for each pair. The correlations between these values with other biochemical parameters were then determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The blood hepatocyte growth factor concentration correlated positively with serum bilirubin (r = 0.556, p < 0.001) level, whereas bile hepatocyte growth factor concentration, hepatocyte growth factor bile/blood ratio, hepatocyte growth factor clearance and daily hepatocyte growth factor output correlated negatively with serum bilirubin level (p = 0.006, < 0.001, < 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). Similar strong positive correlations also were found to exist between these hepatocyte growth factor measurements and other liver function parameters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study we demonstrated that the hepatocyte growth factor was significantly higher in bile than in blood and that the excretion of hepatocyte growth factor in the bile was decreased in patients with obstructive jaundice. The higher blood hepatocyte growth factor level in patients with obstructive jaundice might be due to decreased hepatocyte growth factor excretion. The higher hepatocyte growth factor level in bile also might explain why liver cirrhosis occurs after prolonged jaundice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Rd., Taipei 100, Taiwan. rhhu@ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Rey-Heng
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Po-Huang
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sen-Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Ming-Chih
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D001646:Bile / Q000378:metabolism; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D001651:Cholestasis, Extrahepatic / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006932:Hyperbilirubinemia / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate / Q000502:physiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor; D001663:Bilirubin