Evaluation of Urinary Free L-Fucose as a Useful Marker for Rapidly Proliferating Lesions

Abstract

Background: L-fucose is a rare carbohydrate present at non-reducing ends of glycochains of glycoconjugate of plasma membrane. L-fucose is suggested to be related to some cancers and proliferative diseases. Thus this study has been conducted to elucidate the usefulness of urinary L-fucose as a marker for rapidly proliferating lesions. Methods: Total 81 random spot urine samples were collected once from randomely selected inpatients in Ajou University Hospital of the following disease categories and number of patients: hepatoma 11, liver cirrhosis 18, upper gastrointestinal bleeding 6, hepatitis 8, pancreatitis 6, other carcinomas 14, pulmonary tuberculosis 8 and diabetes mellitus 10. Additional 22 random spot urine samples collected from healthy adult were used as normal control. These urine specimens were subjected to measurement of L-fucose and creatinine levels. The results were expressed as L-fucose pmol/g of creatinine. The urinary L-fucose was determined using UFC test kit (TaKaRa, Japan) on Hitachi 7070 autoanalyzer. The principle of the measurement is enzymatic method using L-fucose dehydrogenase with NAD´. The Urinary creatinine was measured by Jaffe method on Hitachi 7070. Results: The mean ± standard deviation of L-fucose in urine established from the control group was 164± 38.8 pmol/gCr. The L-fucose levels were significantly elevated in the following diseases: hepatoma 301±90.9, liver cirrhosis 351±90.9, hepatitis 201±58.8, diabetes mellitus 315±181.7, carcinomas 289±124.1 and pulmonary tuberculosis 350±125.9. The other disease groups did not show increase of urinary L-fucose. Conclusion: Urinary L-fucose level appears to be elevated in cases associated with malignancy and wound healings. Thus it is a potential candidate as a marker for rapidly proliferating lesions. But it does not discriminate malignancy from benign condition.