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.
Bruno
C M
CM
Department of Internal Medicine and Systemic Diseases, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. cmbruno@unict.it
Sciacca
C
C
Cilio
D
D
Bertino
G
G
Marchese
E
E
Politi
G
G
Chinnice
L
L
Pellicano
R
R
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