S100A12 expression in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

Abstract

Objectives: S100 calcium binding protein A12 (S100A12) has been supposed to be a pro-inflammatory factor associated with non-infectious inflammatory diseases. However, whether S100A12 is involved in the inflammatory process of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) has not been shown.

Methods: The levels of S100A12 mRNA transcripts in peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PBMCs) of 66 Chinese patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), 62 healthy controls (HC) and 55 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were measured by qRT-PCR. S100A12 serum concentrations in 34 PBC patients were measured by ELISA.

Results: The levels of S100A12 mRNA transcripts in PBMCs of patients with PBC were significantly higher than healthy controls (p < 0.01) and that of patients with CHB (p < 0.01). Importantly, the levels of S100A12 mRNA in PBMCs and S100A12 protein levels in serum were positively correlated with biochemical indicators of bile duct and hepatocyte damage.

Conclusion: S100A12 might participate in the damage of biliary epithelial cells and hepatocytes in PBC, and analysis of S100A12 expression could be useful as a surrogate marker for the evaluation of PBC activity.

• Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
• peripheral blood mononuclear cells
• primary biliary cirrhosis
• quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
• S100 calcium binding protein A12

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out at Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, #41 Damucangxidan, Beijing, 100032, China.

Authors Danxu Ma, Xi Li, Lei Zhang, and Chuiwen Deng made equal contributions to this paper.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81072486 and 81172857), the Research Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Health (No. 201202004), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No. 2011AA02A113) and Key Clinical Program of the Ministry of Health (2010–2012).

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.