Total and caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18 in chronic cholecystitis: A prospective study

doi:10.1186/1471-230X-8-14

BMC Gastroenterology
Volume 8

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Simopoulos C
Tsaroucha AK
Asimakopoulos B
Giatromanolaki A
Gavriilidis P
Polychronidis A
Karayiannakis A

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Simopoulos C
Tsaroucha AK
Asimakopoulos B
Giatromanolaki A
Gavriilidis P
Polychronidis A
Karayiannakis A
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Research article

Total and caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18 in chronic cholecystitis: A prospective study

Constantinos Simopoulos¹ , Alexandra K Tsaroucha¹ , Byron Asimakopoulos² , Alexandra Giatromanolaki³ , Paschalis Gavriilidis¹ , Alexandros Polychronidis¹ and Anastasios Karayiannakis¹

¹2nd Department of Surgery, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece

²Laboratory of Physiology, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece

³Department of Pathology, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece

author email corresponding author email

BMC Gastroenterology 2008, 8:14doi:10.1186/1471-230X-8-14


Published:	6 May 2008

Abstract

Background

Cell death mode has been studied in cancer, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, apoptosis and necrosis are investigated for the first time in patients with chronic calculous cholecystitis.

Methods and materials

Thirty five (35) patients (27 women and 8 men, aged 55.65 ± 13.48 years) with symptomatic chronic calculous cholecystitis underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The early specific apoptotic tendency (caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18) was studied in these patients with M30 Apoptosense ELISA and the total cytokerarin 18 (both derived from apoptosis and necrosis) with M65 ELISA. The ratio M30/M65 (caspase-cleaved to total cytokeratin 18) was also computed. According to the histopathological examination, the patients were divided in two groups: group A included patients with chronic inactive cholecystitis (n = 10), and group B those with chronic active cholecystitis (n = 25).

Results

The concentrations of caspase-cleaved cytokerarin 18 (CK18), and especially those of total CK18, were higher in bile samples than in serum samples. In group B, there were significant differences between serum and bile samples regarding both caspase-cleaved CK18 and total CK18. Cells staining positive for caspase-cleaved CK18 were present in the epithelial cells of the mucosa of the gallbladder.

Conclusion

CK18 is expressed in the gallbladder epithelial cells. The concentrations of both caspase-cleaved CK18 and total CK18 were higher in bile samples than in serum samples. The levels of total CK18, as well as caspase-cleaved CK18, do not seem to differ between active and inactive chronic cholecystitis.