[Clinical significance of serum GPDA-F determined by immunoelectrophoresis in diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Serum fast band of glycylproline dipeptidyl aminopeptidase isoenzyme (GPDA-F) is useful to the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, especially for the cases without expression of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Polyacrylamide electrophoresis for detection of GPDA-F is relatively complicated and has limitation in its clinical use. This study was to establish a simple and easy method of immunoelectrophoresis to detect serum GPDA-F, and evaluate clinical value of GPDA-F in the diagnosis of hepatocelluar carcinoma. METHODS: Serum GPDA-F was purified to raise polyclonal GPDA-F antibody, and immunoelectrophoresis was established for the detection of serum GPDA-F. Serum GPDA-F in 99 specimens of hepatocellular carcinoma and 115 specimens of benign liver diseases (36 cases of liver cirrhosis, 23 cases of acute hepatitis, 38 cases of chronic hepatitis, and 18 cases of benign liver space-occupying lesions) was simultaneously detected by both polyacrylamide electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis. The clinical value of serum GPDA-F detected by immunoelectrophoresis was compared with that by polyacrylamide electrophoresis for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. RESULTS: If the cut-off was set at 71 u/L, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of immunoelectrophoresis in detecting GPDA-F in hepatocellular carcinoma were 83.8%, 85.2%, and 84.6%, respectively; while those of polyacrylamide electrophoresis were 81.8%, 77.3%, and 79.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Serum GPDA-F detected by immunoelectrophoresis is useful to the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Compared with polyacrylamide electrophoresis, this method is cheap, time-saving, and easy.