Clinical features and risk factors of patients with fatty liver in Guangzhou area

AIM:There is still no accepted conclusion regarding the clinical features and related risk factors of patients with fatty liver.The large-scale clinical studies have not carried out yet in Guangzhou area. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical features and related risk factors of patients with fatty liver in Guangzhou area.METHODS:A total of 413 cases with fatty liver were enrolled in the study from January 1998 to May 2002. Retrospective case-control study was used to evaluate the clinical features and related risk factors of fatty liver with logistic regression.RESULTS: Obesity (OR：21.204), alcohol abuse (OR：18.601),type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR：4.461), serum triglyceride (TG)(OR：3.916), serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (OR：1.840) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (OR：1.535) were positively correlated to the formation of the fatty liver.The levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT) increased mildly in the patients with fatty liver and were often less than 2-fold of the normal limit.The higher abnormalities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels (42.9%) with AST/ALT more than 2(17.9%) were found in patients with alcoholic fatty liver (AFL) than those with nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) (16.9% and 5.0% respectively).The elevation of serum TG, cholesterol (CHOL), LDL-C was more common in patients with NAFL than with AFL.CONCLUSION:Obesity, alcohol abuse, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidernia may be independent risk factors of fatty liver.The mildly abnormal hepatic functions can be found in patients with fatty liver.More obvious damages of liver function with AST/ALT usually more than 2 were noted in patients with AFL.

Expression of cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein and its association with p53 mutation in colon cancer

AIM: To investigate the expression of cellular FLICE (Fas associated death domain-like IL-lbeta-converting enzyme)-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) and its association with p53 mutation in colon cancer. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of c-FLIP and mutant p53 by using specific antibodies was performed by the standard streptavidin-peroxidase technique for 45 colon cancer tissue samples with matched normal tissues. Semi-quantitative reverse transcriptional (RT)-PCR was used to measure c-FLIP mRNA levels, t-test statistical method was used in data analyses. RESULTS: c-FLIP mRNA was expressed in all colon cancer tissues and its level (0.63±0.12) was significantly higher than that in normal tissues (0.38±0.10, P<0.01). Immuno-histochemically, c-FLIP protein was also expressed in all colon cancers (45/45) and 71.1% (32/45) showed an intense immunostaining, in contrast, 93.3% (42/45) of normal colonic mucosa showed positive staining and none of them immunostained intensely. The quantity of c-FLIP protein was significantly higher in cancer tissues than in normal mucosa (7.04±1.20 vs 5.21±0.86, P<0.01). Positive staining of mutant p53 protein was found in 60% (27/45) colon cancers. c-FLIP mRNA level was decreased in p53 positive group compared with p53 negative cancer tissues (0.59±0.13 vs0.69±0.14, P<0.01), but c-FLIP protein had a significantly higher level in p53 positive cancer tissues than in negative ones (7.57±1.30 vs6.25±1.27, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: c-FLIP is specially overexpressed in colon cancers and it might contribute to carcinogenesis of normal colonic mucosa. p53 may exert transcriptional upregulation effects on c-FLI P gene and more potent effects on promoting the degradation of c-FLIP protein.