Association of Serum Autotaxin Levels with Liver Fibrosis in Patients Pre- and Post-Treatment with Chronic Hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND & AIM: The evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is important as it is a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma. In the recent years, autotaxin (ATX) has been established as a new non-invasive biomarker to predict liver fibrosis. However, antiviral treatment has been reported to decrease serum ATX, but it is unclear whether post-treatment ATX levels reflect liver fibrosis. In the present study, we analyzed the correlation between ATX and liver fibrosis in pre- and post-treatment patients with HCV infection.

METHODS: We used 199 samples from 136 patients with HCV infection who had undergone hepatic biopsy before and/or after antiviral treatment at Osaka City University Hospital. Post-treatment patients included 38 interferon (IFN)-treated patients and 80 IFN-free direct-acting antiviral-treated patients; all patients achieved a sustained virological response (SVR). Serum ATX levels were determined by enzyme immunoassay with an AIA-2000 analyzer.

RESULTS: Serum ATX levels were largely correlated with liver fibrosis stage in patients with HCV infection before and after antiviral treatment. The measured values decreased even in similar liver fibrosis stages after treatment. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the ability of ATX to diagnose above F2 stage before treatment was 0.81 (both male and female) and that after achieving SVR was 0.71 (male) and 0.72 (female).

CONCLUSIONS: Serum ATX levels were correlated with histological liver fibrosis stage after achieving SVR. However, we should establish separate cutoff values before and after antiviral therapy.