Dynamic expressions and clinical significance of toll-like receptor 4/microRNA-181a in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the dynamic expressions and clinical significance of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/microRNA (miRNA)-181a in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis (HF) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) .Methods CHB patients underwent liver biopsy for fibrosis staging HF (S) .Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the expressions of miRNA-181a in both serum and liver tissue and the expression of TLR4 mRNA in liver tissue .Western blot was used to detect the expression of TLR4 protein in liver tissue . The fibrosis-4 (FIB-4 ) index and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI ) were calculated for noninvasive evaluation of fibrosis staging .One-way ANOVA ,Mann-Whitney U test ,spearman correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used for statistical analysis .Results Forty CHB patients were includedin this study ,including 7 with S0 ,6 with S1 ,14 with S2 ,7 with S3 and 6 with S4 .Serum levesl of miRNA-181a (2-&Delta;&Delta;Ct ) in paitents with S0-4 were 1 .00 ± 0 .00 ,0 .68 ± 0 .08 ,1 .60 ± 0 .43 ,2 .32 ± 0 .40 , and 1 .81 ± 0 .22 ,respectively ,showing an overall upward trend (F=207 .242 ,P< 0 .01) and a positive correlation with the severity of HF (r= 0 .754 , P< 0 .01) .The expressions of miRNA-181a ,TLR4 mRNA and TLR4 protein in liver tissues showed an overall increasing trend from S 0 to S4 (F=207 .242 , 110 .390 and 57 .030 ,respectively ,all P<0 .01) .The expression of miRNA-181a in liver tissue showed a positive correlation with both the expression of TLR4 protein in liver tissue and the severity of HF (r=0 .673 and 0 .911 ,respectively ,both P< 0 .01) .There was no significant difference of APRI scores between the severe (S3-4) and non-severe (S0-2) HF groups (Z= -1 .401 ,P>0 .05) .The serum level of miRNA-181a was superior to FIB-4 index for evaluation of the severe HF (S3-4) ,with areas under the ROC curve (AUROC ) of 0 .887 and 0 .695 , respectively , and accuracy of 85 .0％ and 60 .0％ , respectively .Conclusions miRNA-181a may be involved in the regulation of TLR4 signaling pathway so that to affect the progression of HF in CHB patients ,which may be a potential new target for the prevention and early treatment of HF and a non-invasive serum marker for evaluation of HF .