Influence of Orthotopic Liver Transplantation on Serum Vitamin a Levels in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Abstract

Background: Low serum vitamin A levels are observed in many liver diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and alcoholic liver disease. The aim of this study was to investigate serum vitamin A in patients with advanced liver diseases before and after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods: Serum vitamin A (retinol) concentrations were investigated in 54 patients before (OLT) and in 21 patients 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks and 2 and 3 months after OLT. Ten healthy subjects and 19 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) served as control groups. Results: The mean serum retinol concentration before OLT was 0.64 ± 0.1 μmol/l in patients with alcoholic and postnecrotic cirrhosis (n = 24), 1.06 ± 0.48 μmol/l in patients with PBC (n = 14), 0.96 ± 0.64 μmol/l in sclerosing cholangitis (n = 7), and 1.02 ± 0.73 μmol/l in liver cancer (n = 9). These results were significantly lower than in healthy controls (2.34 ± 0.54 μmol/l) and patients with IBD (2.7 ± 0.74 μmol/l) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: After OLT, serum retinol levels increased significantly already after 1 week (1.4 ± 0.1 μmol/l) (p < 0.001), normalized after 2 weeks (2.2 ± 0.4 μmol/l), and remained normal during the observation.

Key Words:

• Liver transplantation
• vitamin A