Biomarkers in Pediatric Liver Disease.

The chronic nature of liver diseases in children and adults merits close follow-up for disease progression and/or treatment evaluation. Disease progression involves injury to liver cells resulting in cell death, varying degrees of inflammation, steatosis depending on the insult, oxidative stress, and eventually fibrosis and cirrhosis unless the process is modified with treatment or spontaneous recovery. Inflammation, cell death, and fibrosis are the three major processes that determine the outcome of liver disease irrespective of the etiology. Markers to measure the activity or status of these parameters in a dynamic way, particularly via noninvasive methods, are urgently required. In this chapter, we summarize recent advances in the identification of biomarkers of liver diseases: biomarkers corresponding to inflammation, cell death, fibrosis, and the development of malignancy.