title: Serum soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor and interferon-γ-induced protein 10 levels correlate with significant fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis B virus (HBV) presents an important public health problem. Liver biopsy is currently the gold standard for assessing the degree of intrahepatic inflammation and for staging liver fibrosis. However, the value of liver biopsies is limited by sampling errors, understaging and interobserver variability in interpretation. There is, therefore, a need to identify novel, non-invasive serologic biomarkers for the development of new predictive models of fibrosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled patients with chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB) and examined the relationships between serum soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) and interferon-induced protein-10 (IP-10), and the results of liver biopsies. Healthy volunteers with normal aminotransferase levels and negative serological results for HBV, hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus were recruited as controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean platelet volume, serum suPAR and IP-10 were significantly elevated in patients with CHB compared with controls. Median serum suPAR and IP-10 levels were significantly higher in patients with liver fibrosis compared with patients with mild fibrosis. There was no significant difference in mean platelet volume or aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index scores between patients with mild and significant fibrosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  suPAR and IP-10 were able to distinguish between significant and mild fibrosis with good sensitivity and specificity, and may thus represent useful biomarkers for identifying patients with significant fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. dileky26@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Dilek Yıldız
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Sevgi
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Banu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bayraktar
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Alper
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gündüz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Banu Yılmaz
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Özgüven
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Alper
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Togay
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bulut
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nuray
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uzun
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: İlyas
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Dökmetaş
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D054357:Chemokine CXCL10 / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012995:Solubility; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D054357:Chemokine CXCL10; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator
keywords: Chronic hepatitis B; IP-10; Liver fibrosis; Noninvasive fibrosis marker; suPAR