Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common indication for liver transplantation, but HCV recurrence is frequent after 1 year and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Oxidative stress (OxS) is involved in the pathogenesis of HCV, but little is known about its presence prior to disease recurrence.
Aim: To determine if at 6 months HCV-positive liver recipients (HCV-OLT) without recurrence were oxidatively stressed.
Methods: 33 HCV-OLTs, 12 controls, and 39 HCV-positive nontransplant patients (HCV-NTs). OxS was assessed by using commercial kits to measure liver lipid peroxidation (LPO) and antioxidant potential (AOP). Plasma vitamin E, retinol (HPLC), and vitamin C (spectrophotometry) were assessed. We collected Anthropometry and 3-day food records. We performed analysis by the Kruskal-Wallis test expressing data as mean values +/- standard errors of the mean.
Result: Waist-hip ratio was higher in both HCV-OLTs and HCV-NTs compared to the controls. HCV-OLTs showed higher hepatic LPO (mumol malondialdehyde/g tissue) versus controls (1.4 +/- 0.20 vs 0.54 +/- 0.10; P = .010) and compared to HCV-NTs (0.98 +/- 0.17; P = .030). No significant differences were found among the groups regarding hepatic AOP. However, lower plasma AOP (micromols UEA) were observed in HCV-OLTs (0.07 +/- 0.008) versus controls (0.17 +/- .040; P = .021) or HCV-NTs (0.08 +/- 0.009; P = .015) versus controls. Plasma gamma-tocopherol was higher in HCV-OLTs and HCV-NTs compared to controls (P = .001). We observed lower vitamin A intake in HCV-OLTs compared with the other two groups (P = .001).
Conclusions: HCV-OLTs without disease recurrence are oxidatively stressed compared with control and HCV-NTs. Future research is needed to determine the impact of this increased oxidative stress on HCV disease recurrence.