Chronic anaemia and adhesion molecules in patients with liver cirrhosis. A preliminary report.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of our study was to investigate circulating levels of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in cirrhotic patients, with and without chronic anaemia, to establish whether there was a relationship between inflammatory activity and anaemia.


METHODS
We investigated 14 anaemic (mean hemoglobin value 10.65+/-1.06 g/dL) and 14 non anaemic (mean hemoglobin value 13.8+/-0.89 g/dL) subjects affected by virus C-related liver cirrhosis comparable for sex, age and degree of liver dysfunction such as expressed by Child-Pugh classification. Circulating sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were measured by EIA commercial kit (R&D System Co, Abington, UK) and mean+/- standard deviation values in two groups were compared by t-test and Kruskall-Wallis test.


RESULTS
Mean+/-standard deviation sICAM-1 was 35.06+/-4.06 ng/mL in anaemic and 23.39+/- 6.1 ng/mL in non anaemic cirrhotic patients. Mean+/-standard deviation sVCAM-1 was 47.66+/-8.18 ng/mL in anaemic 31.77+/-6.08 ng/mL in non anaemic patients, respectively. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the two groups both in sICAM-1 (p=0.01) and sVCAM-1 (p=0.03) values.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study show that chronic anaemia, in liver cirrhosis, is associated to a greater increase of circulating adhesion molecules and suggests that inflammation may contribute to persistence of anaemic state, worsening the outcome of cirrhotic patients.
Department of Internal Medicine and Systemic Diseases, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. cmbruno@unict.it
C M
CM
Bruno
C
C
Sciacca
D
D
Cilio
G
G
Bertino
E
E
Marchese
G
G
Politi
L
L
Chinnice
R
R
Pellicano
D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000097:blood*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012995:Solubility; D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000097:blood*
D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1