Tumour necrosis factor-alpha levels in hepatitis B virus-related chronic active hepatitis and liver cirrhosis and its relationship to Knodell and Child-Pugh scores.

Although both chronic active hepatitis-B (CAH-B) and liver cirrhosis (LC) are characterised by various degrees of inflammation and hepatocyte necrosis, in advanced stage cirrhosis, marked fibrosis develops and inflammation and tissue necrosis diminishes. In this study, we aimed to investigate serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) concentration in patients with CAH-B and LC and its relationship to disease activity. Serum samples were taken from 30 patients with CAH-B and 30 with LC at different stages of the disease. TNF-alpha concentrations were measured by the ELISA technique. Results were compared with those of 30 healthy controls. Mean plasma TNF-alpha levels were found as 2.47 +/- 2.98, 0.8 +/- 1.21 and 0.72 +/- 1.08 pg/ml in CAH-B, LC and control groups, respectively. TNF-alpha levels were significantly higher in CAH-B group than LC and control groups (p <0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). Although mean plasma TNF-alpha level of cirrhotic patients at Child-A stage was markedly high (3.31 +/- 0.15), no significant difference has been found between LC and control groups (p > 0.05). TNF-alpha concentrations were positively correlated with hepatitis activity index (Knodell's score) in CAH-B group whereas negatively correlated with Child-Pugh score in LC group (r =0.73, p < 0.01 and r = -0.42, p < 0.05, respectively). Our study showed that TNF-alpha level increases in patients with CAH-B correlated with histologic activity index. So it can be used to evaluate disease activity. Additionally, marked reduction of TNF-alpha concentration in advanced cirrhosis suggested that TNF-alpha production is determined by hepatic damage and inflammation.

Effects of endurance training on antioxidant defense mechanisms and lipid peroxidation in testis of rats.

Male rats were equally divided into trained rest (TR), trained exhaustive exercise (TE), untrained rest (UR), and untrained exhaustive exercise (UE). Endurance training consisted of treadmill running for 1.5 h/d, 5 days a week for 8 weeks reaching the speed of 2.1 km/h at the fortieth week. For acute exhaustive exercise, graded treadmill running was conducted reaching the speed of 2.1 km/h at 95th min, 10% uphill, continued until exhaustion. Testicular tissue malondialdehyde (MDA), antioxidant potential (AOP) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR) and catalase (CAT) activities were determined. There was a slight decrease, but not significant, in the SOD activity in UE group compared to TE and TR groups. Activity of GSH-Px decreased in the UE group compared to UR, TR and TE groups. Acute exhaustive exercise did not affect testicular tissue GSH-Px activity in trained rats. Testicular tissue GST activity of the UE group was similar to TE group, but lower than UR and TR groups. In UE group, testicular tissue AOP values were lower than UR, TR and TE groups. The oxidative effects of acute exhaustive exercise on the rat testis decreased with endurance training. Endurance training prevents oxidative injuries by eliminating oxygen radicals and inhibiting lipid peroxidation via preventing decreases in antioxidant enzyme activities.