@article{oai:soar-ir.repo.nii.ac.jp:00020847,
 author = {Joshita, Satoru and Umemura, Takeji and Usami, Yoko and Yamashita, Yuki and Norman, Gary L. and Sugiura, Ayumi and Yamazaki, Tomoo and Fujimori, Naoyuki and Kimura, Takefumi and Matsumoto, Akihiro and Igarashi, Koji and Yoshizawa, Kaname and Ota, Masao and Tanaka, Eiji},
 journal = {SCIENTIFIC REPORTS},
 month = {May},
 note = {Autotaxin (ATX) is a secreted enzyme metabolized by liver sinusoidal endothelial cells that has been associated with liver fibrosis. We evaluated serum ATX values in 128 treatment-naive, histologically assessed primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) patients and 80 healthy controls for comparisons of clinical parameters in a case-control study. The median ATX concentrations in controls and PBC patients of Nakanuma's stage I, II, III, and IV were 0.70, 0.80, 0.87, 1.03, and 1.70 mg/L, respectively, which increased significantly with disease stage (r = 0.53, P < 0.0001) as confirmed by Scheuer's classification (r = 0.43, P < 0.0001). ATX correlated with Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein (M2BPGi) (r = 0.51, P < 0.0001) and fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4) index (r = 0.51, P < 0.0001). While ALP and M2BPGi levels had decreased significantly (both P < 0.001) by 12 months of ursodeoxycholic acid treatment, ATX had not (0.95 to 0.96 mg/L) (P = 0.07). We observed in a longitudinal study that ATX increased significantly (P < 0.00001) over 18 years in an independent group of 29 patients. Patients succumbing to disease-related death showed a significantly higher ATX increase rate (0.05 mg/L/year) than did survivors (0.02 mg/L/year) (P < 0.01). ATX therefore appears useful for assessing disease stage and prognosis in PBC., Article, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS.8:8159(2018)},
 title = {Serum Autotaxin Is a Useful Disease Progression Marker in Patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis},
 volume = {8},
 year = {2018}
}