The objective was to develop new blood tests to characterize different fibrosis parameters in viral and alcoholic chronic liver diseases. Measurements included 51 blood markers and Fibrotest, Fibrospect, ELFG, APRI, and Forns scores. The clinically significant fibrosis was evaluated via Metavir staging (F2-F4), and image analysis was used to determine the area of fibrosis. In an exploratory step in 383 patients with viral hepatitis, the area under the receiving operator characteristic (AUROC) curve for stages F2-F4 in a test termed the "Fibrometer" test combining platelets, prothrombin index, aspartate aminotransferase, alpha 2-macroglobulin (A2M), hyaluronate, urea, and age was 0.883 compared with 0.808 for the Fibrotest (P = .01), 0.820 for the Forns test (P = .005), and 0.794 for the APRI test (P < 10(-4)). The Fibrometer AUROC curve was 0.892 in the validating step in 120 patients. The AUROC curve for stages F2-F4 in a test combining prothrombin index, A2M, hyaluronate, and age was 0.962 in 95 patients with alcoholic liver diseases. The area of fibrosis was estimated in viral hepatitis by testing for hyaluronate, 'Y-glutamyltransferase, bilirubin, platelets, and apolipoprotein A1(R-a(2) = 0.645), and in alcoholic liver diseases by testing for hyaluronate, prothrombin index, A2M, and platelets (R-a(2) = 0.836). In conclusion, the pathological staging and area of liver fibrosis can be estimated using different combinations of blood markers in viral and alcoholic liver diseases. Whereas the Fibrometer has a high diagnostic accuracy for clinically significant fibrosis, blood tests for the area of liver fibrosis provide a quantitative estimation of the amount of fibrosis, which is especially useful in cirrhosis.

A high serine content in body fluid was identified in a portion of patients with gastric cancer, but its biological significance was not clear. Here, we investigated the biological effect of serine on gastric cancer cells. Serine was added into the culture medium of MGC803 and HGC27 cancer cells, and its influence on multiple biological functions, such as cell growth, migration and invasion, and drug resistance was analyzed. We examined the global transcriptomic profiles in these cultured cells with high serine content. Both MGC803 and HGC27 cell lines were originated from male patients, however, their basal gene expression patterns were very different. The finding of cell differentiation-associated genes, ALPI, KRT18, TM4SF1, KRT81, A2M, MT1E, MUC16, BASP1, TUSC3, and PRSS21 in MGC803 cells suggested that this cell line was more poorly differentiated, compared to HGC27 cell line. When the serine concentration was increased to 150mg/ml in medium, the response of these two gastric cancer cell lines was different, particularly on cell growth, cell migration, and invasion and 5-FU resistance. In animal experiment, administration of high concentration of serine promoted cancer cell metastasis to local lymph node. Taken together, we characterized the basal gene expressing profiles of MGC803 and HGC27. The HGC27 cells were more differentiated than MGC803 cells. MGC803 cells were more sensitive to the change of serine content. Our results suggested that the responsiveness of cancer cells to microenvironmental change is associated with their genetic background.