Circulating Cytokines Reflect the Etiology-Specific Immune Environment in Cirrhosis and HCC

Simple Summary Chronic liver diseases commonly cause severe scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) and liver cancer. The eventual progression of this scarring process to liver cancer is influenced by a variety of factors, including inflammatory cytokines (soluble mediators of cell communication). In order to increase our understanding of these mediators we studied them in the blood of patients with hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients with liver cirrhosis. We studied more than a 100 cytokines in up to 400 patients. We discovered that patients with cirrhosis had a vast upregulation of a wide variety of immune mediators, which stimulated inflammation and were linked with tumor-promoting roles. In contrast to prevailing assumptions, each type of underlying liver disease exhibited a unique immune mediator profile in blood, which is likely to impact how we will study these markers in the future. Patients with HBV cirrhosis had the largest number of upregulated inflammation-inducing mediators, compared to HCV, ALD and NAFLD. Next, we related blood immune mediator levels with liver cancer. To do so, we studied cytokine profiles in patients with small tumors, thus, those qualified for surgical curative strategies. We observed unique sets of cytokines in serum in each liver cancer group, indicating a role for these mediators in detecting liver cancer. In conclusion, our findings underscore the impact of different liver diseases on circulating immune mediators. Future studies that aim to study them as diagnostic tools will need to correct for this important effect accordingly. Background and Aims: Chronic liver disease-from any etiology-can progress to fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The progression of liver cirrhosis to the end stages of disease is influenced by a variety of factors, including inflammatory cytokines. We pursued a study of cytokine-mediated inflammatory responses in hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods: Immune profiles were determined through the serum multiplex profiling of >100 cytokines in a 188 cirrhotic patients, 35 healthy controls and 196 early-stage HCC patients. Results: Patients with liver cirrhosis exhibited a vast upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines (p < 0.0001), including those with pro-oncogenic features, when compared to healthy individuals. In contrast to prevailing assumptions, each etiological cause of cirrhosis exhibited a unique cytokine profile in blood. Regardless of antiviral therapy, HBV cirrhosis patients had the largest number of upregulated proinflammatory mediators, compared to HCV, ALD and NAFLD (p < 0.0001). To further evaluate the etiology-dependent modulation of cytokine response in relation to liver cancer, we studied cytokine profiles in early-stage HCC patients strictly stratified by underlying liver disease. We observed unique sets of differentially expressed cytokines in each cohort of early-stage HCC patients of different cirrhosis etiologies. Conclusions: Our findings, therefore, underscore the importance of stratification by the etiological cause of liver cirrhosis in immune-based studies.