Oxidative stress markers, alpha-fetoprotein and alpha-fetoprotein-L3 levels of alcohol dependent subjects

Abstract

As one of the most important social problems around the world, alcohol addiction damages the body by causing fatty liver and can lead to hepatitis, cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma. In the present study we investigated the relationship between oxidative stress and liver cancer risk in alcohol dependent patients using some noninvasive pro- and antioxidant markers. We also examined the relative value of individual markers and their relationship with liver tumor markers including alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and AFP-L3. Serum samples were collected from age-matched males who are in either healthy control or alcohol dependent groups. The effect of alcohol dependence on the serum proteins including ceruloplasmin and prealbumin, oxidative stress markers, AFP and AFP-L3 levels were evaluated. In the alcohol dependent group, the levels of lipid peroxidation end-product malondialdehyde and protein oxidation marker protein carbonyl were significantly higher than the control group. Similarly, serum ceruloplasmin, prealbumin, AFP and AFP-L3 levels were found to be slightly higher in the alcohol dependent group. However, superoxide dismutase enzyme activities were significantly lower in the alcohol dependent group than in the control group. These results showed that AFP-L3 tends to correlate positively with alcohol consumption. Further studies including higher number of study subjects will be needed to demonstrate a potential statistical significance of increased AFP-L3 levels in alcohol dependent subjects and may contribute to determining the relations between alcohol dependance and liver cancer risk.