Clinical significance of Alanine aminotransferase and Aspartate aminotransferase

Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are routine items of liver function tests and have important clinical significance.

Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a non-plasma specific enzyme, which is widely present in various organs and tissues in the body, especially in the liver. When these tissue cells rich in ALT are damaged, ALT is released from the cells, resulting in a rapid increase in the activity of ALT in the blood, and the level of ALT can reflect the damage of these tissues.

The serum alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) activity is elevated, which is the earliest abnormal indicator of viral hepatitis. It is recommended by the World Health Organization as the most sensitive indicator of liver damage. In the case of disease screening and screening of blood donors, the detection of alanine aminotransferase activity is a mandatory item.

Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is very important in human metabolism. There are two isoenzymes of aspartate aminotransferase in the liver, which exist in the mitochondria (mAST) and cytoplasm (sAST) of liver cells.

There are two isozymes in the liver, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), which are present in the mitochondria (mAST) and cytoplasm (sAST) of hepatocytes, respectively. In the case of mild hepatic lesions, only sAST is released into the blood; when the lesion is severe, mAST is also released into the blood. Therefore, the serum AST activity is increased with the degree of liver cell damage.Therefore, the quantitative detection of the concentration of aspartate aminotransferase in the human body can understand the current degree of liver damage in the human body and determine the treatment effect. It can also perform routine liver function tests on healthy people, and its clinical significance is the same as that of alanine aminotransferase.