. A sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay was developed for the precursor-specific peptide segment located at the amino end of bovine type III procollagen. Human material showed high cross-reactivity in this assay. Two forms of human procollagen peptides were detected in body fluids. The larger peptide (45K) was found in serum and ascites, and resembled the whole precursor-specific segment which is presumably released from human type III procollagen by a single enzymatic cleavage. The smaller peptide (10K) was found mainly in urine indicating that further degradation of circulating procollagen peptides is required prior to their passage through the kidney.



Compared to peptide concentrations in normal human serum, two to twenty-fold increases were observed in all patients with alcoholic liver disease, in fifteen of seventeen patients with acute hepatitis, and in ten of fourteen patients with chronic active hepatitis. Much higher levels were detected in ascites fluid. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases showed far smaller elevations of the serum peptide. In alcoholic liver disease peptide levels correlated well with inflammation and necrosis observed in liver biopsies, but not with other laboratory parameters.

Radioimmunoassay for type III procollagen peptide and its application to human liver disease.

https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hep.1840030118

Is Cirrhosis of the Liver Experimentally Produced by CC14 an Adequate Model of Human Cirrhosis

https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/0016-5085(84)90143-4/pdf

Alcoholic liver injury in baboons: transformation of lipocytes to transitional cells.

https://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(04)00111-4/pdf

Cirrhosis reversal: a duel between dogma and myth

https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/0016-5085(80)90091-8/pdf

Karl A. Piez

Papers

Collagen metabolism in the liver