Endothelial biomarker soluble CD146 suggests that angiogenesis plays an important role in progression of fibrosis in liver disease

CD146, an element of the endothelial junction- has been evaluated in several pathological conditions with altered endothelial function but never before in patients with liver disease. As angiogenesis and inflammation were implicated in the development of liver fibrosis, we have explored this suggestion by evaluating levels of sCD146 in a group of patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) and in cirrhotic patients. The results indicated that there is a clear connection between sCD146 levels and the progression of liver disease. They can differentiate noncirrhotic patients with CLD from cirrhotics, supporting the usefulness of CD146 in the noninvasive diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, our findings provided evidence of sCD146 upregulation in decompensated compared to compensated cirrhosis and sCD146 values were clearly associated with Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Thus, by using an easy to perform ELISA method, we demonstrated that sCD146 can accurately distinguish advanced fibrosis and prognosticate decompensation in cirrhosis.