The Importance of Lipid Raft Proteins for Sepsis: Could Raftlin-2 be a New Biomarker?
Hilmi Erdem Sumbul1, Emre Karakoc2, Murat Erdogan2, Ozlem Ozkan Kuscu2, Filiz Kibar3, Salih Cetiner4, Tugba Korkmaz2, Merve Yahsi2, Firat Kocabas21Department of Internal Medicine, Health Science University, Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Adana, Turkey, 2Department of Internal Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey, 3Department of Microbiology, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey, 4Department of Biochemistry, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey
Objectives: Bacterial infections and sepsis are common problems in patients receiving intensive care unit treatment. Raftlin-2 is a protein with an important role in lipid rafts, and the aim of this study was to compare raftlin-2 micro protein blood levels in a healthy control group with a patient group with septicemia. Methods: A prospective, controlled study was conducted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital and a control group was selected from healthy individuals. There were 64 ICU patients and 74 individuals in the control group. Blood samples were taken from the study group before the start of antibiotic therapy. The C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, lactate, biochemistry, and raftlin-2 levels of the patient and control groups were compared. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the lactate levels in the healthy group and the patient group with septicemia, but not in the raftlin-2 protein level. The p-values were calculated at 0.350 for raftlin-2 and 0.007 for lactate. There was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in the level of procalcitonin (p=0.000), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (p=0.0001), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (p=0.0001), white blood cells (p=0.001), and ferritin level (p=0.0001). Conclusion: In this study, the LDL and HDL levels of patients with sepsis were lower than those of the control group. Low LDL and HDL levels may be associated with sepsis. However, there is a need for prospective, controlled, and extensive participatory studies to further examine the lipid profile of patients. In this study, the raftlin-2 level was not significantly different between the patient and the control group. These findings suggest that measurement of raftlin-2 level does not constitute an alternative to the diagnostic methods used in clinics for sepsis. Additional studies are needed to determine the benefits of measuring the raftlin-2 level in clinical use and in the experimental setting.
Cite This Article
Sumbul H, Karakoc E, Erdogan M, Ozkan Kuscu O, Kibar F, Cetiner S, Korkmaz T, Yahsi M, Kocabas F. The Importance of Lipid Raft Proteins for Sepsis: Could Raftlin-2 be a New Biomarker?. EJMI. 2018; 2(2): 95-100
Corresponding Author: Hilmi Erdem Sumbul