Published online Jun 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i6.1182
Peer-review started: January 14, 2022
First decision: March 24, 2022
Revised: March 28, 2022
Accepted: May 22, 2022
Article in press: May 22, 2022
Published online: June 27, 2022
Oxidative damage of DNA and RNA has been associated with mortality of patients with different diseases. However, there is no published data on the potential use of DNA and RNA oxidative damage to predict the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing liver transplantation (LT).
To determine whether patients with increased DNA and RNA oxidative damage prior to LT for HCC have a poor LT prognosis.
Patients with HCC who underwent LT were included in this observational and retrospective study. Serum levels of all three oxidized guanine species (OGS) were measured prior to LT since guanine is the nucleobase that forms DNA and RNA most prone to oxidation. LT mortality at 1 year was the end-point study.
Surviving patients (n = 101) showed lower serum OGS levels (P = 0.01) and lower age of the liver donor (P = 0.03) than non-surviving patients (n = 13). An association between serum OGS levels prior to LT and 1-year LT (odds ratio = 2.079; 95% confidence interval = 1.356-3.189; P = 0.001) was found in the logistic regression analysis.
The main new finding was that high serum OGS concentration prior to LT was associated with the mortality 1 year after LT in HCC patients.
Core Tip: The potential use of DNA and RNA oxidative damage to predict prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent liver transplantation is unknown. In this retrospective study serum levels of the three oxidized guanine species before liver transplantation in 114 patients were measured. One-year survivor patients showed lower serum oxidized guanine specie levels than non-survivor patients (P = 0.01). These preliminary results could induce studies to clarify the potential role of oxidative damage in the prognosis of liver transplantation patients due to hepatocellular carcinoma and to explore the use of antioxidant agents to reduce oxidative stress in those patients.