Clinical Significance of Serum Transforming Growth Factor-β_1 on Diagnose of Liver Fibrosis

Objective To research the diagnostic value of transforming growth factor-β 1 (TGF-β 1) for liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis. Methods Serum levels of TGF-β 1 in 143 patients with viral hepatitis were investigated by double sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA),comparing with hepatic histological findings of 87 patients. Results The serum level of TGF-β 1 was significantly higher in patients with chronic hepatitis and hepatitis cirrhosis than that in normal controls (P0 05). It was also significantly higher in patients with liver histopathological activity than that in normal controls (P0 05). No significant correlation existed between the level of serum TGF-β 1 and the histological activity index (P0 05). The correlation between the level of serum TGF-β 1 and the histologically assessed stage of fibrosis was moderate (r=0 612, P0 05). The level of serum TGF-β 1 in patients with hepatitis cirrhosis was significantly higher than that in patients without hepatitis cirrhosis (P0 05). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of serum TGF-β 1 to differentiate patients with extensive liver fibrosis from those with no or mild liver fibrosis was 0 836, and that to differentiate patients with hepatitis cirrhosis from those without hepatitis cirrhosis was 0 828. Their cut off values were 80 μg/L and 120 μg/L Conclusion The development of liver fibrosis can be implied by periodic detection of serum TGF-β 1. The level of serum TGF-β 1 is valuable in differentiating patients with extensive liver fibrosis from those with no or mild liver fibrosis and in the judgement of hepatitis cirrhosis, but its value is limited in comparison with liver biopsy.