Liver free papers 001–011

001 PLASMA INTERLEUKIN-18 (IL-18) LEVELS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLIC LIVER DISEASE (ALD) AND ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS (AH) ARE RELATED TO DISEASE SEVERITY

C.D.J. Evans¹, S.E. Robertson², J.A. Gracie², I.B. McInnes², A.J. Morris.

¹Department of Gastroenterology, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK; ²CRD, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK

Aim and Background: IL-18 is a novel pro-inflammatory cytokine of the IL-1 family and is critical in the development of Th-1 responses. Th-1 responses have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ALD. We investigated IL-18 expression in patients with ALD and AH.Gut i):A1–A116

Patients and Methods: We studied inpatients with ALD (n = 48, I/P ALD), outpatients with compensated ALD (n = 13, O/P ALD), and healthy volunteers (n = 15, HVs). The mean age of the I/P ALD (40 males) was 47.7 years and that of the O/P ALD group 55.2 years. Other forms of chronic liver disease were excluded by standard serological tests. IL-18 levels were measured by ELISA (Diaclone). Whole blood cell culture (WBC) +/− lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was performed to assess IL-18 production. A Childs-Pugh score and a Maddrey’s Discriminant Function were calculated for all patients. The results were analysed by Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: Inpatients consisted of five with Childs grade A, 17 B, and 26 C. Eighteen had a MDF < 24, 9 a MDF of 24–32, and 21 a MDF > 32. Plasma IL-18 levels were significantly elevated in the I/P ALD group when compared with O/P ALD and HVs (all units pg/ml), (174 +/− 170, 45 +/− 52, and 32 +/− 83; p < 0.01 and p < 0.001). IL-18 levels in Child’s C inpatients (226 +/− 214) were significantly elevated compared to Child’s A inpatients (27 +/− 38; p < 0.01). Higher plasma IL-18 levels were found in inpatients with moderate/severe AH (MDF > 24) when compared with inpatients with MDF < 24, O/P ALDs, and HVs (224 +/− 203, …