A preliminary study of endotoxemia and expressive change of Toll-like receptor 4 mRNA of peripheral blood monocytes in patients of viral hepatitis

Objective To study the change of TLR4 mRNA expression of peripheral blood monocytes and endotoxemia in patients of viral hepatitis.Method Peripheral venous blood was obtained from 86 hepatitis patientsand 11 health volunteers served as control.The LPS concentration of plasma was detected by limulus lysate test.RT-PCR was used to detect the expressive change of TLR4 mRNA.Results In the patients,LPS concentration of plasma was elevated in different degrees compared with control group (P0.05).In severe hepatitis group,the elevation of the LPS concentration was higher than that of other hepatitis group (P0.05).The expression of the TLR4 mRNA in severe group was increased significantly compared with those of control group (P0.05).However,in other hepatitis group,TLR4 mRNA expression was not significantly changed compared with those of control group (P0.05). Conclusion Endotoxemia was present in various hepatitis group,which was more prominent in severe hepatitis group.The expression of TLR4 mRNA in peripheral blood monocytes in severe hepatitis patients might be closely correlated with liver injury.