CCN2/CTGF for non-invasive monitoring of liver diseases!

Chronic liver diseases are the fifth most frequent cause of death in the United States and Europe, and liver fibrosis and ultimately cirrhosis are the common endpoints of all chronic liver diseases. While histological evaluation of liver biopsies is no longer recommended due to its highly invasive nature, new imaging techniques and multi-parameter panels as well show limited diagnostic value, since they tend to be limited by analytical imprecision and missing global reference standards.

A recent study at the Wisplinghoff Medical Laboratories in Cologne, Germany (O.A. Gressner at al.: Clinical Chimica Acta 421 (2013) 126-131) has now shown now, that CTGF/CCN2 (connective tissue growth factor) might be a helpful non-invasive new biomarker to detect chronic liver diseases like liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cell carcinoma. CTGF concentration in serum was significantly increased in patients with different stages of fibrosis (Scheuer Score), cirrhosis and HCC (hepato-cellular carcinoma), while HCC patients without underlying cirrhosis showed CTGF levels comparable to healthy controls. The study suggest a valuable diagnostic impact of CTGF in serum for the monitoring of patients suffering from chronic liver diseases. Further studies are planned in China to investigate the impact of CTGF/CCN2 in liver cell carcinoma in more detail.

Both studies use DRG´s CTGF ELISA (EIA-5195). This assay was developed by DRG in 2010/2011 and is a solid phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the sandwich principle.
The dynamic range was determined to be between 3.2 - 500 ng/mL. The kit is easy to use and includes two internal controls.

DRG Instruments offers ELISAs to detect the first 3 members of the CCN proteins family:

• CYR61/CCN1 (EIA-5108) 

• CTGF/CCN2 (EIA-5195) 

• NOV/CCN3 (EIA-4836)