INFLUENCE OF ORTHOTOPIC LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION ON SERUM VITAMIN-A LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LIVER-DISEASE

Background: Low serum vitamin A levels are observed in many liver dise ases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and alcoholic liver dise ase. The aim of this study was to investigate serum vitamin A in patie nts with advanced liver diseases before and after orthotopic liver tra nsplantation (OLT). Methods: Serum vitamin A (retinol) concentrations were investigated in 54 patients before (OLT) and in 21 patients 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks and 2 and 3 months after OLT. Ten healthy subjects and 19 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) served as control g roups. Results: The mean serum retinol concentration before OLT was 0. 64 +/- 0.1 mu mol/l in patients with alcoholic and postnecrotic cirrho sis (n = 24), 1.06 +/- 0.48 mu mol/l in patients with PBC (n = 14), 0. 96 +/- 0.64 mu mol/l in sclerosing cholangitis (n = 7), and 1.02 +/- 0 .73 mu mol/l in liver cancer (n = 9). These results were significantly lower than in healthy controls (2.34 +/- 0.54 mu mol/l) and patients with IBD (2.7 +/- 0.74 mu mol/l) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: After OLT, serum retinol levels increased significantly already after 1 week (1.4 +/- 0.1 mu mol/l) (p < 0.001), normalized after 2 weeks (2.2 +/- 0.4 mu mol/l), and remained normal during the observation.