Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), is a cell surface molecule involved in many immunological processes. Recently, ICAM-1 has also been detected as a soluble form in sera of patients affected by different pathologies and often associated with severity of the disease. However, all these studies were carried out in patients before drug treatment. Since in vitro experiments and recent evidence in humans has indicated the possibility that some cytokines may be responsible of ICAM-1 release, we have considered the possibility of quantitating ICAM-1 in sera of patients undergoing therapy with drugs influencing cytokine regulation. Thymostimulin, which seems to belong to this category, has been used in a pilot study by some of us in the treatment of patients with liver cirrhosis associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. By using an enzymatic sandwich assay, we found significantly high circulating ICAM-1 mean values in patients affected by liver cirrhosis alone or associated with hepatocellular carcinoma or non-Hodgkin lymphoma compared to control subjects (p<0.001), Moreover, in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cirrhosis who were treated with thymostimulin, serial detection of c-ICAM-1 was carried out and patients responsive to the drug showed significantly increased values of c-ICAM-1 (p=0.006), Our study suggests that an evaluation of c-ICAM-1 levels needs to be considered in the context of the therapeutic approach, with particular attention to those drugs which may affect the regulation of the cytokine pathway.

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