1SY Abo El Nazar and 2MM Osman.
Departments of 1Immunology and 2Parasitology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Sixty patients having three different diseases affecting the liver were enrolled in the present study. Twenty patients with fascioliasis (10 acute & 10 chronic), twenty patients with schistosomiasis (10 early & 10 late) and twenty patients with liver cirrhosis of different aetiologies were studied. Significantly increased serum concentration of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and sL-selectin were detected by ELISA in the different groups of patients as compared to normal controls. The cirrhotic patients had the highest level of both sICAM-1 and sL-selectin. In schistosomiasis, sICAM-1 and sL-selectin were high in early hepatic affection and increased in the advanced stage. Among cases with fascioliasis, those with chronic fascioliasis revealed a significant increase in sICAM-1 and sL-selectin serum levels as compared to acute stage of the disease. Accordingly, taken as potential predictive morbidity marker, sICAM-1 and sL-selectin high levels would denote inflammatory reactions in the liver in schistosomiasis and fascioliasis, however less marked than in hepatic cirrhosis. In the chronic phases, these circulating adhesive molecules may play a role in the eventual modulation of the granulomatous response and may play a beneficial role to the host by acting as adhesive blockers.