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Associations Between Hepatic Functions and Plasma Amyloid-Beta Levels—Implications for the Capacity of Liver in Peripheral Amyloid-Beta Clearance

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Abstract

Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Clearance of Aβ is a promising therapeutic strategy for AD. We have previously demonstrated that peripheral organs play important roles in the clearance of brain-derived Aβ. In the present study, we recruited 46 patients with liver cirrhosis and 46 normal controls and found that plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels were significantly higher in the cirrhosis patients than in the normal controls. Notably, cirrhosis patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection had higher plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels than HBV-negative cirrhosis patients. Besides, cirrhosis patients had significantly higher plasma levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-6. Plasma tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) levels were not significantly different between the groups. Moreover, we found significant correlations of hepatic functions with plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels. Plasma IL-6 levels were also significantly correlated with plasma Aβ40 levels. However, in the linear regression model, we found significant correlation of plasma Aβ40 levels with hepatic functions, but not with plasma IL-6 levels. Our results indicate that the hepatic dysfunctions might result in decreased peripheral Aβ clearance by the liver. Protecting hepatic functions might be helpful for the clearance of brain-derived Aβ in the blood.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81471296)

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital and Institute of Field Surgery, Third Military Medical University, 10 Changjiang Branch Road, Yuzhong district, Chongqing, 400042, China

      Ye-Ran Wang, Qing-Hua Wang, Tao Zhang, Yu-Hui Liu, Xiu-Qing Yao, Fan Zeng, Jing Li, Fa-Yin Zhou, Lin Wang, Jia-Chuan Yan, Hua-Dong Zhou & Yan-Jiang Wang

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    1. Ye-Ran Wang
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    Correspondence to Yan-Jiang Wang.

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    The present study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Daping hospital, Third Military Medical University.

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    Ye-Ran Wang and Qing-Hua Wang contributed equally to this work.

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    Wang, YR., Wang, QH., Zhang, T. et al. Associations Between Hepatic Functions and Plasma Amyloid-Beta Levels—Implications for the Capacity of Liver in Peripheral Amyloid-Beta Clearance. Mol Neurobiol 54, 2338–2344 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-016-9826-1

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