Amino acid imbalance in patients with chronic liver diseases.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to clarify the amino acid imbalance in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) as well as those with liver cirrhosis (LC).


METHODS
We assayed total branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), tyrosine (Tyr) levels and their ratio (BTR) in sera of 101 patients with CH (37 in fibrosis stage F1, 23 in F2, 21 in F3) and 20 with LC (F4) who were diagnosed by liver biopsy. Their levels in relation to the staging of liver fibrosis were analyzed.


RESULTS
The percentage of patients whose BTR was less than the normal range was 32.1% in CH and 75.0% in LC. The levels of BTR and BCAA were significantly lower (P < 0.001, P < 0.05, respectively) and that of Tyr was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in patients with LC than those in CH. The levels of BTR decreased according to the staging. The levels of Tyr increased according the staging, whereas the levels of BCAA deceased prominently in F4 (487 +/- 103 in F1, 483 +/- 122 in F2, 487 +/- 111 in F3 and 423 +/- 94 in F4).


CONCLUSIONS
A considerable number of patients not only with LC but also with CH showed lower levels of BTR. It has been clarified that amino acid imbalance of Tyr was found in the early stage of liver disease, whereas decrease of BCAA was found mainly in F4 stage.
Michitaka
Kojiro
K
Department of Gastroenterology, Ehime Prefectural Central Hospital, Matsuyama.
Hiraoka
Atsushi
A
Kume
Misaki
M
Uehara
Takahide
T
Hidaka
Satoshi
S
Ninomiya
Tomoyuki
T
Hasebe
Aki
A
Miyamoto
Yasunao
Y
Ichiryu
Misa
M
Tanihira
Tetsuya
T
Nakahara
Hiromasa
H
Ochi
Hironori
H
Tanabe
Atsushi
A
Uesugi
Kazuhiro
K
Tokumoto
Yoshio
Y
Mashiba
Toshie
T
Abe
Masanori
M
Hiasa
Yoichi
Y
Matsuura
Bunzo
B
Onji
Morikazu
M