Both plasma lysophosphatidic acid and serum autotaxin levels are increased in chronic hepatitis C.
OBJECTIVE
Recent accumulating evidence indicates that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid mediator, abundantly present in blood, with a wide range of biologic actions including the regulation of proliferation and contraction in liver cells. Although it is speculated that LPA might play a role in pathophysiologic processes in vivo, not only its role but also even a possible alteration in its blood concentration under specific diseases is essentially unknown. Autotaxin (ATX), originally purified as an autocrine motility factor for melanoma cells, was revealed to be a key enzyme in LPA synthesis. We determined LPA and ATX levels in the blood of patients with liver disease.


METHODS
ATX activity was measured by determining choline with the substrate of lysophosphatidylcholine, and the LPA level by an enzymatic cycling method in 41 patients with chronic hepatitis C.


RESULTS
The serum ATX activity and plasma LPA level were significantly increased in patients, and were correlated positively with serum hyaluronic acid, and negatively with platelets, albumin, and prothrombin time. The plasma LPA level was strongly correlated with serum ATX activity. There were significant correlations between the histologic stage of fibrosis and both the serum ATX activity and plasma LPA level.


CONCLUSIONS
The serum ATX activity and plasma LPA level are increased in chronic hepatitis C in association with liver fibrosis. Our study may provide the first evidence showing a significant increase of both ATX and LPA in the blood under a specific disease.
Watanabe
Naoko
N
Department of Gastroenterology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
Ikeda
Hitoshi
H
Nakamura
Kazuhiro
K
Ohkawa
Ryunosuke
R
Kume
Yukio
Y
Aoki
Junken
J
Hama
Kotaro
K
Okudaira
Shinichi
S
Tanaka
Masayuki
M
Tomiya
Tomoaki
T
Yanase
Mikio
M
Tejima
Kazuaki
K
Nishikawa
Takako
T
Arai
Masahiro
M
Arai
Hiroyuki
H
Omata
Masao
M
Fujiwara
Kenji
K
Yatomi
Yutaka
Y
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000097:blood; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008246:Lysophospholipids / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000097:blood*; D043264:Phosphodiesterase I / Q000097:blood*; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases; D010976:Platelet Count; D011755:Pyrophosphatases / Q000097:blood*; D015219:Substrate Cycling; D000099189:Lysophospholipase D
D006820:Hyaluronic Acid; D008246:Lysophospholipids; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D043264:Phosphodiesterase I; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases; D011755:Pyrophosphatases; D000099189:Lysophospholipase D; C032881:lysophosphatidic acid