Pediatric Liver Disease Patients and Secondary Glycosylation Abnormalities

Anna Bogdańska; Patryk Lipiński; Paulina Szymańska-Rożek; Irena Jankowska; Piotr Socha; Anna Tylki-Szymańska

doi:10.3389/fped.2020.613224

Pediatric Liver Disease Patients and Secondary Glycosylation Abnormalities

Front Pediatr. 2021 Jan 13:8:613224. doi: 10.3389/fped.2020.613224. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Anna Bogdańska¹, Patryk Lipiński², Paulina Szymańska-Rożek³, Irena Jankowska⁴, Piotr Socha⁴, Anna Tylki-Szymańska²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Radioimmunology and Experimental Medicine, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
² Department of Paediatrics, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
³ Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Feeding Difficulties and Pediatrics, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Background: Isoelectric focusing (IEF) of serum transferrin (Tf) is still the method of choice for diagnosis of congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG). An abnormal glycosylation is also a known phenomenon in adult liver disease patients. The aim of this study was to characterize glycosylation disturbances in pediatric patients with primary liver disease. However, there are no reports of this phenomenon in children. Materials and Methods: Between 1995 and 2019, circa 2,000 serum Tf isoform analyses have been performed in children with primary liver diseases; some of them underwent subsequent analyses. We enrolled in this study 19 patients who developed an acute liver injury (ALI)/failure (ALF) or exhibited a chronic liver disease (CLD) and were evaluated and listed for liver transplantation (LTx) or had just undergone this procedure, and secondary abnormal serum Tf isoform profile. Results: Among 12 patients with ALI/ALF, 10 had an increased percentage of asialo-, monosialo-, and disialo-Tf isoforms. All patients with CLD had an increased percentage of asialo- and monosialo-Tf isoform. Two patients diagnosed with recurrent ALF had very specific serum Tf profile with a huge increase in the asialo- and monosialo-Tf isoform. On follow-up analyses (available in some patients), serum Tf IEF profile normalized in parallel to normalization of liver function tests, spontaneously or during treatment, including glucocorticosteroids in AIH, LTx in CLD. Conclusions: All pediatric patients with primary liver disease had increased asialo-Tf as well as monosialo-Tf isoforms. None of them had elevated percentage of trisialo-Tf isoform.

Keywords: acute liver failure (ALF); acute liver injury (ALI); autoimmune hepatitis (AIH); chronic liver disease (CLD); congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG); liver transplantation; serum transferrin isoelectrofocusing.