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Background & Aims: Patients with advanced cirrhosis often have immune dysfunction and are more susceptible to infections. Galectin-3 is a β-galactoside-binding lectin implicated in inflammation, immune regulation and liver fibrosis. We aim to investigate galectin-3 expression in advanced cirrhosis and its ability to predict post-transplant infectious complications.
Methods: We collected sera and liver samples from 129 cirrhotic patients at the time of liver transplantation and from an external cohort of 37 patients with alcoholic liver disease including alcoholic hepatitis (AH) at the time of diagnosis. Galectin-3 was assessed by ELISA, real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry and RNA-seq. Receiver operating characteristic curves and Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis were performed to assess the predictive power of galectin-3 for disease severity and post-transplant infections.
Results: Increased galectin-3 levels were found in advanced cirrhosis. Galectin-3 significantly correlated with disease severity parameters and inflammatory markers. Galectin-3 had significant discriminating power for compensated and advanced cirrhosis (AUC = 0.78/0.84, circulating/liver galectin-3; p < .01), and was even higher to discriminate severe AH (AUC = 0.95, p < .0001). Cox Proportional-hazard model showed that galectin-3, MELD-Na and the presence of SIRS predict the development of post-transplant infectious complications. Patients with circulating galectin-3 (>16.58 ng/ml) were at 2.19-fold 95% CI (1.12-4.29) increased risk, but when combined with MELD-Na > 20.0 and SIRS, the risk to develop post-transplant infectious complications, increased to 4.60, 95% CI (2.38-8.90).
Conclusion: Galectin-3 is a novel biological marker of active inflammation and disease severity that could be clinically useful alone or in combination with other scores to discriminate advanced cirrhosis and predict post-transplant infectious complications.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/liv.15326 | DOI Listing |
Korean J Physiol Pharmacol
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Department of Endocrinology, The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan 410007, China.
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Carle Illinois College of Medicine University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 509 W University Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
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Division of Paediatric Pulmonology; University of Cape Town, South Africa; Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Diseases Prevention and Treatment, Guangzhou, China; School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address:
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Pharmacol
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Department of Hepatology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:
The gut-liver axis constitutes a bidirectional communication network that integrates the ecological microenvironment, metabolism, and immune signals between the gut and liver systems. Currently, there is compelling evidence indicating that the overall dysfunction of the gut-liver axis is a pivotal driver in the pathogenesis of advanced liver diseases. This review focuses on the latest research progress regarding various components of the intestinal barrier and how these components contribute to the onset and progression of cirrhosis and its complications.
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