Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Feb 27, 2022; 14(2): 429-441
Published online Feb 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i2.429
β-arrestin-2 predicts the clinical response to β-blockers in cirrhotic portal hypertension patients: A prospective study
Sameh A Lashen, Mohammed M Shamseya, Marwa A Madkour, Radwa M Abdel Salam, Sanaa S Mostafa
Sameh A Lashen, Division of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21521, Egypt
Mohammed M Shamseya, Marwa A Madkour, Department of Experimental and Clinical Internal Medicine, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Radwa M Abdel Salam, Sanaa S Mostafa, Department of Pathology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Author contributions: Lashen SA drafted the manuscript and performed data analysis, participated in study design, was involved with data collection, and performed the endoscopic assessment; Shamseya MM drafted the manuscript, participated in study design, was involved with data collection, and performed the endoscopic assessment; Madkour MA was involved with data collection, drafted the manuscript, performed the Doppler evaluation, and assisted in the data analysis; Abdel Salam RM and Mostafa SS equally drafted the manuscript, were involved with data collection, and performed the pathological analysis; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed approved by the institutional review boards of the Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University [review number: 0303608]
Clinical trial registration statement: The current study design was not a randomized clinical trial, so registration on the clinical trials database was not done.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided written consent before study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There are no additional data available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: All the authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sameh A Lashen, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Champollion Street, El-Khartoum Square, Azarita Medical Campus, Alexandria 21521, Egypt. sameh.lashen@alexmed.edu.eg
Received: November 20, 2021
Peer-review started: November 20, 2021
First decision: December 26, 2021
Revised: January 8, 2022
Accepted: February 15, 2022
Article in press: February 15, 2022
Published online: February 27, 2022
Processing time: 93 Days and 13.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Gastric antral β-Arrestin-2 (β-Arr-2) expression correlates to portal hypertension in terms of esophageal varices and portal gastropathy. A stronger β-Arr-2 expression is associated with a sustained clinical response to nonselective β-blockers (NSBB) with a longer variceal bleeding-free interval. Patients who experienced variceal bleeding while on NSBB had lower baseline serum and tissue expression of β-Arr-2. In patients with responded to NSBB, the expression of β-Arr-2 was reduced after long-term treatment. The serum level of β-Arr-2 correlates to its antral expression and showed high sensitivity and specificity for defining the subgroup of patients who will respond to NSBB.