Suppressive effect of oral administration of branched-chain amino acid granules on oxidative stress and inflammation in HCV-positive patients with liver cirrhosis.
OBJECTIVE
In chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, it is thought that both chronic persistent inflammation and oxidative stress contribute to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and it has been reported that long-term oral supplementation with branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) granules could inhibit liver carcinogenesis. However, the extent of the involvement of these factors remains obscure.


METHODS
To clarify the involvement of inflammation and oxidative stress in the inhibition of liver carcinogenesis, we evaluated the effect of oral administration of BCAA granules on oxidative stress and inflammation in HCV-positive patients with liver cirrhosis.


RESULTS
Twenty-seven patients were enrolled in the study: 18 of the patients were treated with BCAA granules (administered group) and nine were observed without BCAA granules (non-administered group). In the non-administered group, the production of oxidative stress, as indicated by urine 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and 15-F2t-Isoprostane (8-IsoPs), significantly increased with time, while in the administered group the levels of ferritin and 8-OHdG decreased significantly. Comparison of the two groups demonstrated that highly sensitive CRP, ferritin, 8-OHdG and 8-IsoPs were significantly reduced by taking BCAA granules. The time-course analysis showed that ferritin and highly sensitive CRP seemed to decrease first, followed by a decrease of 8-OHdG and 8-IsoPs.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicated that the administration of BCAA granules influenced microinflammation and the metabolism of iron in HCV-positive patients with liver cirrhosis, and subsequently seemed to reduce the production of oxidative stress, possibly leading to a decrease in the occurrence of HCC.
Ohno
Tomoyoshi
T
Department of Gastroenterology, Social Insurance Chukyo Hospital, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.
Tanaka
Yasuhito
Y
Sugauchi
Fuminaka
F
Orito
Etsuro
E
Hasegawa
Izumi
I
Nukaya
Haruhiko
H
Kato
Atsunaga
A
Matunaga
Seijiro
S
Endo
Masayuki
M
Tanaka
Yoshito
Y
Sakakibara
Kenji
K
Mizokami
Masashi
M