TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mölleken, Christian
A1  - Ahrens, Maike
A1  - Schlosser, Anders
A1  - Dietz, Julia
A1  - Eisenacher, Martin
A1  - Meyer, Helmut E.
A1  - Schmiegel, Wolff
A1  - Holmskov, Uffe
A1  - Sarrazin, Christoph
A1  - Sørensen, Grith Lykke
A1  - Sitek, Barbara
A1  - Bracht, Thilo
T1  - Direct-acting antivirals-based therapy decreases hepatic fibrosis serum biomarker microfibrillar-associated protein 4 in hepatitis C patients
T2  - Clinical and molecular hepatology
N2  - Background/Aims: An estimated 80 million people worldwide are infected with viremic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Even after eradication of HCV with direct acting antivirals (DAAs), hepatic fibrosis remains a risk factor for hepatocarcinogenesis. Recently, we confirmed the applicability of microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4) as a serum biomarker for the assessment of hepatic fibrosis. The aim of the present study was to assess the usefulness of MFAP4 as a biomarker of liver fibrosis after HCV eliminating therapy with DAAs.
Methods: MFAP4 was measured using an immunoassay in 50 hepatitis C patients at baseline (BL), the end-of-therapy (EoT), and the 12-week follow-up visit (FU). Changes in MFAP4 from BL to FU and their association with laboratory parameters including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), platelets, the AST to platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis-4 score (FIB-4), and albumin were analyzed.
Results: MFAP4 serum levels were representative of the severity of hepatic fibrosis at BL and correlated well with laboratory parameters, especially APRI (Spearman correlation, R²=0.80). Laboratory parameters decreased significantly from BL to EoT. MFAP4 serum levels were found to decrease from BL and EoT to FU with high statistical significance (Wilcoxon p<0.001 for both).
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that viral eradication resulted in reduced MFAP4 serum levels, presumably representing a decrease in hepatic fibrogenesis or fibrosis. Hence, MFAP4 may be a useful tool for risk assessment in hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis after eradication of the virus.
KW  - Hepatitis C, Chronic
KW  - Biomarkers
KW  - Liver cirrhosis
KW  - Antiviral agents
KW  - Extracellular matrix proteins
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48428
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-484281
SN  - 2287-285X
SN  - 2287-2728
N1  - This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 24
IS  - cmh.2018.0029
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Assoc.
CY  - Seoul
ER  -