Hepatitis B virus related acute-on-chronic liver failure is a serious condition with a high mortality. Oxidative stress, inflammation, necrosis and apoptosis may play an important role in it. This study is to investigate whether serum AOPP, S100A12, HMGB1 and sRAGE can provide diagnostic or prognostic information in HBV-related ACLF.

We measured serum S100A12, HMGB1 and sRAGE levels in 50 patients with HBV-related ACLF, 35 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), 35 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and 35 healthy controls by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. AOPP measured by spectrophotometry.

Significantly higher AOPP, S100A12, HMGB1 and sRAGE levels on admission were found in patients with ACLF compared with LC, CHB and healthy controls (P<0.001). In ACLF patients, they were higher in nonsurvivors than survivors (P<0.001). They had a positive relationship with total bilirubin and MELD scores. AOPP, S100A12 and HMGB1 concentrations continually declined in survivors while increased in nonsurvivors, sRAGE concentrations did not change in survivors, but gradually increased in nonsurvivors during hospitalization. ROC curve analysis showed that the four biomarkers had a higher AUC than TBIL. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that S100A12, AOPP and sRAGE were independent risk factors for poor prognosis.

Serum AOPP, S100A12 and sRAGE maybe reflect the oxidation stress, inflammation levels in HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure. Increased AOPP, S100A12 and sRAGE may serve as important biological markers of worse outcome.