Amylases ; blood ; Herbicides ; poisoning ; Humans ; Lipase ; blood ; Paraquat ; poisoning ; Poisoning ; blood

Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Nitrogen Oxides ; poisoning ; Occupational Exposure

Dust ; Humans ; Inflammation ; metabolism ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; metabolism ; Silicon Dioxide ; adverse effects ; Silicosis ; metabolism

Adult ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dimethylformamide ; poisoning ; Female ; Humans

Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Inhalation Exposure ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Paraquat ; poisoning

Adult ; Aluminum Compounds ; poisoning ; Humans ; Male ; Phosphines ; poisoning

Adult ; Burns, Chemical ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Paraquat ; poisoning ; Skin ; injuries

Acute Disease ; Adult ; Chlorpyrifos ; Humans ; Insecticides ; poisoning ; Male ; Organophosphate Poisoning ; complications ; Rhabdomyolysis ; chemically induced

OBJECTIVETo explore the role of sTRAIL in the pathogenesis of HBV infection in human being.

METHODSsTRAIL in 153 patients' sera was examined with ELISA. Correlations between sTRAIL and liver functional parameters were analysed.

RESULTSThe levels of sTRAIL in patients with various clinical types of hepatitis B as well as primary hepatocellular carcinoma were all higher than that in normal persons and became almost normal in recovering stage cases. In acute and chronic HBV infection, sTRAIL level was negatively correlated with ALT, AST and total bilirubin levels, and positively correlated with serum albumin.

CONCLUSIONThe results indicated that higher level of sTRAIL expression is correlated with liver damage, and apoptosis induced by sTRAIL is one of the mechanisms of liver damage in HBV infection.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Hepatitis B ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; virology ; Liver Neoplasms ; blood ; virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Serum Albumin ; analysis ; TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand ; blood ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore the clinical value of detecting serum glypican-3 in the diagnosis and therapeutic effect evaluation of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC).

METHODSUsing sandwich ELISA, we detected serum glypican-3 levels in 60 patients with PHC, 60 with metastatic liver cancer, 50 with liver cirrhosis, 50 with chronic viral hepatitis, 20 with hepatic cyst, 20 with fatty liver, 20 with hepatic hemangioma and 20 with drug-induced hepatitis as well as in 40 healthy subjects (control). We also analyzed the changes in serum levels of glypican-3 and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in PHC patients after treatment.

RESULTSPHC patients had significantly higher serum levels of glypican-3 than patients with other liver diseases and the control subjects (P<0.05). The levels of serum glypican-3 were significantly higher in patients with metastatic liver cancer, liver cirrhosis and viral hepatitis than in those with other benign liver diseases and the control subjects (P<0.05). Glypican-3 level was not associated with AFP level or liver function in PHC patients, in whom the positivity rates for glypican-3 and AFP were 65% and 56.7%, respectively. The detection rate of PHC increased to 85% by a combined detection of AFP and glypican-3. In the 23 PHC patients who responded positively to treatments, serum glypican-3 level showed a steady decline compared with that in 15 patients before treatment, while serum AFP level showed a similar decrease only in 10 patients.

CONCLUSIONCombined detection of glypican-3 and AFP is expected to improve the early diagnosis rate of PHC. The different thresholds of serum glypican-3 may play a role in the differential diagnosis of PHC and other various liver diseases. Glypican-3 may serve as a better marker than AFP with a high specificity and sensitivity for evaluating the therapeutic effect in PHC patients.