ASSESSMENT OF SERUM AUTOTAXIN AS NOVEL BIOMARKER OF LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Background: Autotaxin and its product lysophosphatidic acid are considered to be involved in the development of liver cirrhosis and elevated levels of serum autotaxin have been found in patients with hepatitis C virus associated liver disease. Objective: The clinical role of systemic autotaxin in the stages of liver cirrhosis was unknown. So, in our study we investigated the utility of serum autotaxin level as a marker of liver cirrhosis. Methods: Patients with liver cirrhosis were prospectively enrolled. Blood samples drawn at the day of inclusion in the study were assessed for autotaxin content by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Autotaxin levels were correlated with liver cirrhosis. The diagnostic value of autotaxin was investigated by analyses. Results: 60 subjects were enrolled. Cirrhotic group had highest level of serum Autotaxin (105.86 ± 14.85 mg/l, p1<0.001) compared to hepatitis C virus non cirrhotic group (81.98 ± 11.31 mg/l, p2<0.001) and to control group (42.52 ± 4.95 mg/l, p3<0.001) with statistically significant difference and also hepatitis c non cirrhotic group had higher level compared to Control group by using of one-way ANOVA test. Conclusion: Our findings supported that serum Autotaxin level is a valuable test for detection of cirrhosis and associated with the severity of liver cirrhosis