Research article

Plasma Pentraxin3 is a Novel Marker for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)

Masato Yoneda^1* , Takashi Uchiyama^1* , Shingo Kato¹ , Hiroki Endo¹ , Koji Fujita¹ , Kyoko Yoneda¹ , Hironori Mawatari¹ , Hiroshi Iida¹ , Hirokazu Takahashi¹ , Hiroyuki Kirikoshi¹ , Masahiko Inamori¹ , Yuichi Nozaki¹ , Noritoshi Kobayashi¹ , Kensuke Kubota¹ , Satoru Saito¹ , Shiro Maeyama² , Mina Sagara³ , Hiroyuki Aburatani⁴ , Tatsuhiko Kodama⁵ and Atsushi Nakajima¹

¹  Division of Gastroenterology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-9 Fuku-ura, Yokohama, Japan

²  Kitakashiwa Rehabilitation Hospital, 265 Kashiwashita, Kashiwa, Japan

³  Perseus Proteomics Inc., 4-7-6 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

⁴  Geneme Science Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

⁵  Laboratory for Systems Biology and Medicine, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

BMC Gastroenterology 2008, 8:53doi:10.1186/1471-230X-8-53

Published:	14 November 2008

Abstract

Background

The changes in the liver in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) range over a wide spectrum, extending from steatosis to steatohepatitis (NASH). However it has remained difficult to differentiate between NASH and non-progressive NAFLD on the basis of the clinical findings alone.

Aims

In this study we investigated the clinical usefulness of plasma Pentraxin3 (PTX3) levels to predict NASH. Plasma PTX3 was measured in 70 patients with histologically verified NAFLD (28 with non-NASH and 42 with NASH) and 10 healthy control subjects.

Results

The plasma PTX3 level was significantly higher in the NASH cases than in the non-NASH cases (p = 0.0021) and control subjects (p = 0.045). And the plasma PTX3 level was significantly higher in the stages 3–4 NAFLD cases than in the stages 0–2 NAFLD cases (p < 0.0001). The PTX3 values were closely correlated with the stages of liver fibrosis (p < 0.0001, Kruskal-Wallis test). To detect NASH compared with non-NASH, the area under the curve for plasma PTX3 were 0.755, and to detect stages 3–4 NAFLD compared with stages 0–2 NAFLD, the area under the curve for plasma PTX3 were 0.850.

Conclusion

This is the first study to demonstrate consistent and profound elevation of plasma PTX3 levels in NASH in comparison with non-NASH. The results suggest that plasma PTX3 levels may not only be laboratory values that differentiate NASH from non-NASH, but marker of the severity of hepatic fibrosis in NASH.