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The profiling of plasma free amino acids and the relationship between serum albumin and plasma-branched chain amino acids in chronic liver disease: a single-center retrospective study

  • Original Article—Liver, Pancreas, and Biliary Tract
  • Published:
Journal of Gastroenterology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

It is poorly understood how an imbalance of plasma-free amino acids (PFAAs) occurs and how the imbalance shows an association with the serum albumin (sAlb) level during the progression of chronic liver disease (CLDs). The aim of this study is to elucidate the profiles of PFAAs and the relationship between sAlb and PFAAs in recent patients with CLDs during the progression.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated the 1569 data of PFAAs data obtained from 908 patients with various CLDs (CHC, CHB. alcoholic, NAFLD/NASH, PBC, AIH, PSC, and cryptogenic). In total, 1140 data of PFAAs could be analyzed in patients with CLDs dependent of their Child–Pugh (CP) score.

Results

Various imbalances in PFAAs were observed in each CLDs during the progression. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that among 24 PFAAs, the level of plasma-branched chain amino acids (pBCAAs) was significantly associated with the CP score, especially the sAlb score, in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (CHC), NAFLD/NASH and PBC. The correlation coefficient values between sAlb and pBCAAs-to-Tyrosine ratio (BTR) in these patients were 0.53, 0.53 and 0.79, respectively. Interestingly, although the pBCAAs in NAFLD/NASH patients varied even when the sAlb was within the normal range, the pBCAAs tended to be low when the sAlb was below the normal range.

Conclusions

Although a decrease in the level of pBCAAs was observed during the progression regardless of the CLD etiology, the level of total pBCAAs was independently associated with the sAlb level in the PFAAs of CHC, PBC and NAFLD/NASH. The correlation between sAlb and BTR showed the highest value in PBC patients among the patients with CLDs. A decrease in pBCAAs often occurred in NASH even when the sAlb level was kept in the normal range.

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Abbreviations

PFAAs:

Plasma free amino acids

pBCAAs:

Plasma branched chain amino acids

BTR:

pBCAAs-to-Tyrosine ratio

sAlb:

Serum albumin

CLDs:

Chronic liver diseases

CP:

Child–Pugh

NAFLD/NASH:

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/steatohepatitis

ALD:

Alcoholic liver disease

CHC:

Chronic hepatitis with hepatitis C virus

CHB:

Chronic hepatitis with hepatitis B virus

PBC:

Primary biliary cholangitis

AIH:

Autoimmune hepatitis

PSC:

Primary sclerosing cholangitis

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a Grant-in-aid from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan to EK (16K09336), and Grants from Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo, Aobaku, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan

    Akitoshi Sano, Eiji Kakazu, Tatsuki Morosawa, Jun Inoue, Masashi Ninomiya, Tomoaki Iwata, Teruyuki Umetsu, Takuya Nakamura, Satoshi Takai & Tooru Shimosegawa

  2. Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 4-4-1 Komatsushima, Aobaku, Sendai, Miyagi, 981-8558, Japan

    Takayuki Kogure

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  1. Akitoshi Sano
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Correspondence to Eiji Kakazu.

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Sano, A., Kakazu, E., Morosawa, T. et al. The profiling of plasma free amino acids and the relationship between serum albumin and plasma-branched chain amino acids in chronic liver disease: a single-center retrospective study. J Gastroenterol 53, 978–988 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-018-1435-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-018-1435-5

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