correlation between hmgb1 expression and cholecystokinin levels in patients with gallbladder disorders

Aims: this study aimed to evaluate the association between hmgb1 gene expression and cholecystokinin levels in patients with gallbladder disease before and after cholecystectomy. materials & methods: this experimental study was conducted at the college of science, wasit university, iraq. patient samples were collected from al karama teaching hospital and al zahraa hospital between october 2023 and july 2024. the study included 40 patients with cholecystitis, who were divided into two categories; 20 pre-surgery patients and 20 post-surgery patients, along with 20 healthy controls. the age range of participants was 20 to 79 years. serum cholecystokinin levels were measured using elisa, while hmgb1 gene expression was analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. findings: there was a significant increase in serum cholecystokinin levels across all study groups (p<0.05), with no significant difference between post-surgical patients and healthy controls (p>0.05). hmgb1 expression level was significantly higher in pre-surgical patients (4.91±0.51) compared to post-surgical patients (1.95±0.24) and healthy controls (1.0; p<0.05). receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that cholecystokinin had an area under the curve of 0.717 (p=0.002), with 72.5% sensitivity, while hmgb1 expression showed excellent diagnostic accuracy with an area under the curve of 0.950 (p=0.001) and 95.0% sensitivity. there was a significant positive correlation between hmgb1 expression and cholecystokinin levels both before (r=0.323, p=0.042) and after (r=0.419, p=0.033) surgery. conclusion: hmgb1 expression is significantly associated with gallbladder disease progression, with levels decreasing after cholecystectomy.