The impact of alcohol abuse on selected biochemical parameters in patients with chronic pancreatitis

Introduction:
Alcohol abuse is one of the main health problems in the modern world. One of the consequences of alcoholism is chronic pancreatitis (CP). The pathogenesis of CP is not fully explained, but during CP, metabolic changes occur in the connective tissue of the pancreas. Our goal was to evaluate the fluctuations of selected extracellular enzymes in the course of alcoholic CP.

Material and methods:
Fifty-seven patients with alcoholic CP diagnosed according to M-ANNHEIM criteria were enrolled in the study. Twenty sex- and age-matched healthy individuals were enrolled as controls. MMP-2 and MMP-9, along with the concentrations of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 in patients with CP and hyaluronic acid (HA) level were evaluated in serum using commercially available ELISA kits.

Results:
A significant increase in TIMP-1 level and a decrease in MMP-2/TIMP-1 ratio were noted in patients with alcoholic CP compared to controls (282.8 ng/ml vs. 247.2 ng/ml and 0.65 vs. 0.73; median values of TIMP-1 and MMP-2/TIMP-1 ratio in study and control patients respectively, p < 0.05). The observed increase in HA level did not reach statistical significance. The negative correlation between combined MMP/TIMP ratio vs. HA level was statistically insignificant.

Conclusions:
The elevation of TIMP-1 and decrease in MMP-2/TIMP-1 ratio in CP patients indicate the reduced gelatinolytic activity of serum during CP.