Serum proteomic signatures as biomarkers of primary biliary cirrhosis diagnosis and prognosis.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease considered as an autoimmune disease. To identify new biomarkers of PBC, serum profiling analysis using Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) was employed. Twelve patients with either asymptomatic PBC (group 1, n=6) or PBC with a poor response to UDCA (group 2, n=6), were compared to healthy controls (group 3, n=6). Analysing the 18 sera by using four SELDI-TOF arrays under various conditions, we found four biomarkers of PBC at 5.9, 8.6, 8.9 and 9.0 kDa. The combination of the two arrays IMAC-40/Zn(2+) and CM-10/pH 7 improved the positive diagnosis of this disease. We also found a biomarker of severity of PBC at 95.2 kDa on LSAX-30 array which characterized patients with a bad prognosis. In conclusion, our study identified several serum proteomics signatures as potential biomarkers of PBC for its diagnosis or prognosis.