Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 18, 2015; 7(14): 1875-1883
Published online Jul 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i14.1875
Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein: A novel non-invasive marker for assessing cirrhosis and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma
Gary L Norman, Nikolaos K Gatselis, Zakera Shums, Christos Liaskos, Dimitrios P Bogdanos, George K Koukoulis, George N Dalekos
Gary L Norman, Zakera Shums, Inova Diagnostics, Inc., San Diego, CA 92131, United States
Nikolaos K Gatselis, Christos Liaskos, George N Dalekos, Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41110 Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
Dimitrios P Bogdanos, Division of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41110 Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
Dimitrios P Bogdanos, Division of Transplantation Immunology and Mucosal Biology, Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College London School of Medicine, Denmark Hill Campus, London SE5 9RJ, United Kingdom
George K Koukoulis, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41110 Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
Author contributions: Norman GL, Gatselis NK, Bogdanos DP and Dalekos GN had the original idea, designed the study and wrote the first draft of the paper; Shums Z, Liaskos C and Gatselis NK performed the laboratory analysis, collect the data and did the statistical analysis; Koukoulis GK did the interpretation of the histological data of the patients and along with Dalekos GN and Norman GL made the final critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors have seen and approved the final draft of the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee Review Board of the School of Medicine of Thessaly University. All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Norman GL and Shums Z are employees of Inova Diagnostics Inc. They have a pending patent application US 2012/0183981 relevant to the present study. Inova Diagnostics Inc. provided funds to Norman GL and Shums Z (ELISA kits) for the support of this study. All other authors have no disclosures relevant to this manuscript. Other authors have declared that no competing interest exists.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available (all relevant data are within the paper).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: George N Dalekos, MD, PhD, Professor, Head, Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Biopolis, 41110 Larissa, Greece. dalekos@med.uth.gr
Telephone: +30-24-13502285 Fax: +30-24-13501557
Received: April 14, 2015
Peer-review started: April 24, 2015
First decision: May 13, 2015
Revised: May 29, 2015
Accepted: June 30, 2015
Article in press: July 2, 2015
Published online: July 18, 2015
Processing time: 101 Days and 18.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: We report our first results regarding the utility of serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), an antigen over-expressed in developing liver, as a novel non-invasive marker of liver fibrosis and risk of progression to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCC is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, therefore non-invasive tests of fibrosis, as well as tests that can predict which patients are at high risk to develop HCC are needed. Our results suggest that COMP levels are associated with cirrhosis and a worse prognosis, thus serum COMP may assist clinicians as a non-invasive biomarker for risk assessment in surveillance programs.