title: Plasma citrulline level as a biomarker for cancer therapy-induced small bowel mucosal damage.
abstract: Regimen-related mucosal toxicity is extremely common following cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Mucositis is as an important determinant of the inflammatory response and infectious complications in cancer treated patients. Most assessment scales for mucosal damage are focussed on oral mucositis, since it is easy to evaluate. Measuring gastrointestinal musocal damage objectively remains difficult because it cannot be seen directly or readily detected. One of potential non-invasive biomarkers of gastrointestinal mucosal damage is plasma citrulline level. Citrulline is an amino acid produced by small bowel enterocytes. Low concentration of free circulating citrulline signifies severe intestinal mucosal damage in humans with nonmalignant disorders, such as villous atrophy-associated diseases, short bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, and is used in follow-up after small bowel transplantation. The plasma citrulline level is a reliable and objective biochemical marker of enterocyte mass and function in humans, and therefore can be used to monitor enterocyte toxicity resulting from chemotherapy and radiotherapy during anticancer therapy in patients with severely disturbed gut integrity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Justyna A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Barzał
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Cezary
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Szczylik
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology with Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rzepecki
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biopharmaceuticals, National Medicines Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jaworska
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biopharmaceuticals, National Medicines Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Elżbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anuszewska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002956:Citrulline / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000166:cytology*; D052016:Mucositis / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002956:Citrulline