OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical significance of the expression of serum differential protein in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) related liver fibrosis.

METHODSOne hundred and ten CHB patients confirmed by liver biopsies were enrolled, 83 for modeling and 27 for verification. According to Ishak staging, 55 patients in the modeling group were with significant liver fibrosis ( F is more than or equal to 3 ) and 28 patients with normal/mild liver fibrosis ( F0-F2 ). While that in the verification group were 15 ( F is more than or equal to 3 ) and 12 ( F0-F2 ), respectively. MALDI-TOF-MS/MS was used to detect serum proteins and the spectrum for each sample was analyzed in FlexAnalysis3.0 to produce the spectrum of differential proteins. The results were compared with clinicopathologic diagnosis and the diagnosis model based on genetic algorithm was established and evaluated.

RESULTSThere were 15 proteins differentially expressed in significant liver fibrosis group and normal/mild fibrosis group ( P value is less than 0.01), in which the differences on proteins 2081.73 m/z and 1944.41 m/z were the most significant. Based on these two proteins, the coordinate system was set up and the diagnosis model based on genetic algorithm was established by six characteristic peaks. After detecting 12 cases of normal/mild liver fibrosis and 15 cases of significant liver fibrosis, the results showed that the diagnostic model could identify significant fibrosis ( F is more than or equal to 3 ) and normal/mild liver fibrosis ( F0-F2 ) at 100% recognition, 94.14% prediction and 100% accuracy.

CONCLUSIONSerum differential proteins examination can be used for early prediction of CHB related fibrosis. The study provides the basis for non-invasive diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis according to identifying the potential differences of the serum samples from patients with HBV related fibrosis.