Effect of lamivudine treatment on plasma levels of transforming growth factor β1, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 and metalloproteinase-1 in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Table 1 Plasma concentrations of TGF-β₁, TIMP-1 and MMP-1 during treatment with lamivudine (mean ± SE)

	Normal values	Time since treatment beginning (wk)
		0	24	48	72
TGF-β1 (ng/mL)	18.3 ± 1.6	29.6 ± 2.21	22.6 ± 1.22	21.9 ± 1.52	24.1 ± 2.4
TIMP-1 (ng/mL)	1102.0 ± 67	1578.0 ± 931	1235.0 ± 672	927.0 ± 502	1215.0 ± 982
MMP-1 (ng/mL)	11.9 ± 0.9	6.7 ± 0.71	8.3 ± 0.51	9.6 ± 0.51	9.7 ± 0.72

Statistical significance in comparison with

¹normal and

²baseline values.

Table 2 Correlation expressed by r-value and its significance between analyzed biochemical indices and TGF-β₁, TIMP-1 or MMP-1 in chronic hepatitis B patients treated with lamivudine

	mean ± SE	TGF-β1	TIMP-1	MMP-1
Bil (mg%)	1.02 ± 0.06	0.049	0.119	-0.059
ALT (U/L)	74.50 ± 5.9	0.201a	0.247a	0.005
AST (U/L)	60.10 ± 5.2	0.244a	0.269a	-0.029
ALP (U/L)	96.10 ± 3.8	0.114	0.295a	-0.071
GGT (U/L)	47.70 ± 4.9	0.062	0.247a	-0.102
PI (%)	87.30 ± 1.5	-0.109	0.006	-0.065

Bil: bilirubin; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; ALP: alkaline phosphatase; GGT: gamma glutamyltranspeptidase; PI: prothrombin index.

^aP < 0.05 vs other groups.

Table 3 Values of scored degree of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis in liver biopsy specimens obtained from patients before and after lamivudine treatment (mean ± SE)

	Before the treatment	After the treatment
Portal inflammation	2.6 ± 0.1	2.5 ± 0.2
Lobular inflammation	1.9 ± 0.1	1.8 ± 0.1
Fibrosis	2.0 ± 0.2	1.8 ± 0.2

Table 4 Correlation expressed by r-value and significance be-tween scored degree of hepatic inflammation or fibrosis and plasma levels of TGF-β₁, TIMP-1 and MMP-1 in patients with chronic hepatitis B before lamivudine treatment

	Inflammation		Fibrosis
	Portal	Lobular
TGF-β1	0.207	0.179	0.391a
TIMP-1	0.224	0.319	0.620a
MMP-1	0.009	-0.094	-0.135

^aP < 0.05 vs others.

Table 5 Activities of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases during the treatment (0, 24 and 48 wk) and 24 wk after its completion (week 72) in four groups (mean ± SE)

	ALT (U/l)				AST (U/L)
	0	24	48	72	0	24	48	72
Group I	87.0 ± 24.5	25.2 ± 5.0	23.0 ± 4.8	23.2 ± 4.9	79.8 ± 15.9	30.2 ± 6.7	28.0 ± 6.4	27.0 ± 6.1
Group II	108.5 ± 53	32.5 ± 9.5	31.9 ± 7.5	31.7 ± 5.7	66.7 ± 24.8	44.2 ± 12.7	32.1 ± 4.8	29.8 ± 3.8
Group III	127.0 ± 43.4	38.7 ± 8.2	78.0 ± 30.1a	88.2 ± 34b	117 ± 47.2	39.2 ± 8.8	60.5 ± 15.9	63.5 ± 22a
Group IV	101.0 ± 11.8	78.6 ± 8.3	69.2 ± 6.3b	68.5 ± 4.2b	65.9 ± 6.4	65.2 ± 21.2	59.7 ± 8.4	58.7 ± 3.9a

Statistical significance in comparison with group I (complete response to treatment):

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.001 vs other groups.