Vitamin B-6 and Glutathione on Inflammation, Homocysteine, Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Capacities

This study is designed as a hospital-based cross-sectional and randomized placebo-controlled intervention trial. One hundred and fifty patients with either cirrhosis or cirrhosis combined with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who meet the inclusion criteria will be recruited from Taichung General Veterans Hospital. One hundred patients will be randomly assigned to either the 1) placebo group (n = 25); 2) vitamin B-6 group; (50 mg/d, n = 25); 3) glutathione (GSH) group (500 mg/d, n = 25); or 4) vitamin B-6 (50 mg/d) plus GSH (500 mg/d) group (n = 25) for 3 mo. Data on demography, anthropometry and medical history will be collected. Patients with cirrhosis or cirrhosis combined with HCC will have fasting blood drawn in the clinics. Additionally, patients who participated in the intervention study will have blood drawn at month 0, 1, 2 and 3 during intervention period. Hematological measurements, plasma vitamin B-6 status, GSH, inflammatory markers, homocysteine, cysteine, SAM, SAH, oxidative stress indicator, oxidized GSH and GSH related antioxidant enzyme activities will be analyzed.