A study of the microheterogeneity of transferrin in cirrhotic patients

Abstract In order to assess the specificity of transferrin molecular changes, we compared concentrations of subfractions and total transferrin in cirrhotic patients, in patients having non-alcoholic hepatitis, in patients with liver cancer, and in controls. The study was carried out in 79 patients divided into four groups: 20 patients with biopsy-proven cirrhosis of alcoholic origin, 20 patients with non-alcoholic hepatitis, 19 patients with liver cancer and 20 controls. Subfractions of serum transferrin were separated by isoelectric focusing followed by direct immunofixation. Fractions p I 5.7 percentages (expressed as percentages of one fraction over total transferrin) were significantly higher in the cirrhotic group than in the control group ( p I 5.9 percentages were significantly higher in the cirrhotic group than in the hepatitis or control groups ( p p A quantitative increase of fraction p I 5.7 was found in the cirrhotic patients. However, in this study, this parameter did not discriminate between patients with parenchymal liver diseases of alcoholic or other origin. Therefore, the value of determining fraction p I 5.7 as a marker of chronic alcohol consumption seems questionable. The elevation of fraction p I 5.9 constantly found in the cirrhotic patients could not be explained and needs further investigations.