Significance of Serum Cytokeratin-18 in Prediction of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis C Infected Egyptian Patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Hepatitis C virus is one of the most common etiologic agents of chronic liver diseases, including liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in which there is continuous inflammation and regeneration of hepatocytes. Cytokeratin-18 (CK18) has been suggested to play an important role in tumorigenesis of epithelial cancers.AIM:Estimation of CK18 serum levels in patients with chronic viral hepatitis C (CHCV) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and find the relationship between their levels, the severity of the disease and the development of HCC.METHODS:We measured serum levels of CK18 in 60 Egyptian patients (30 with CHCV & 30 with HCC) and 30 healthy controls.RESULTS:Patients with HCC had highly significant increased CK18 levels compared with CHCV patients, healthy controls. Cytokeratin-18 among the three classes of Child-Pugh classification show highly significant gradual increase from child A to C. Furthermore, In HCC there were positive correlations between CK18 and with RBCs, ESR, and AFP.CONCLUSION:CK18 is a sensitive indicator of the severity of liver disease. Patients with CHCV infection can be followed up by measurement of its serum level which can predict the development of HCC. The combination of AFP and CK18 increased the sensitivity of detection for HCC.

Ex vivo generation and maturation of dendritic cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with chronic HCV or hepatocellular carcinoma using Toll-like receptor 3 ligand poly(I:C)

“…The current results indicated that there was nonsignificant change in numbers of WBCs among HCV, HCC, or control. This agrees with Aino et al (2014) and El-Zefzafy et al (2015) who reported that WBC count was not significantly changed in both HCC and HCV patients in comparison to the control individuals. The present results further indicated that the number of DCs generated from PBMCs of HCC patients was lower than that generated from control individuals or HCV patients.…”

Cancer Development in Hepatocytes by Long-Term Induction of Hypoxic Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell (HCC)-Derived Exosomes In Vivo and In Vitro

“…30 CK18 plays a key role in monitoring chronic viral hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, and HCC. 31 The malignant transformation of cells can cause cells to secrete a large amount of HSP90α, which promotes the cell proliferation and metastatic potential. 32 TK1 is closely related to cell proliferation, and the up-regulation of TK1 is considered to be an early manifestation of cancer development.…”

“…GP73 is highly expressed in HCC and promotes the tumor metastasis by inducing EMT in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment . CK18 plays a key role in monitoring chronic viral hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, and HCC . The malignant transformation of cells can cause cells to secrete a large amount of HSP90α, which promotes the cell proliferation and metastatic potential .…”

Changes in serum levels of cytokeratin-18 fragments in patients with chronic hepatitis C under antiviral therapy

“…El-Zefzafy et al showed CK-18 is a sensitive indicator of the severity of liver disease. Patients with CHC infection can be followed up by measuring serum levels of CK-18 which can predict the development of HCC (15).…”