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Cytokine-chemokine and apoptotic signatures in patients with hepatitis C

  • Manuela G. Neuman
  • , Jean Pierre Benhamou
  • , Patrick Marcellin
  • , Dominique Valla
  • , Izabella M. Malkiewicz
  • , Gad G. Katz
  • , Cristhian Trepo
  • , Marc Bourliere
  • , Ross G. Cameron
  • , Lawrence Cohen
  • , Mary Morgan
  • , Hemda Schmilovitz-Weiss
  • , Ziv Ben-Ari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

63 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cytokines and chemokines are proteins that play a critical role in the regulation of immunity and inflammation in patients with chronic Hepatitis C. The aim of our study was to correlate serum cytokines, chemokines and apoptosis in non-treated chronic hepatitis C patients with various degrees of inflammation and fibrosis. We studied 778 patients: 59 had low Knodell fibrosis score and low Knodell histological activity index; 372 had mild fibrosis and low histological activity index; 270 had moderate fibrosis and moderate histological activity index; and, 77 had high fibrosis and high histological activity index on their biopsy. Serum cytokines, chemokines and apoptosis were measured by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent-assay. Multivariate analysis was employed for statistical purposes. A positive correlation was seen between the degree of inflammation and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels (r=0.92) in non-cirrhotic patients and between interleukin 2 in all patients (r=0.85). Interleukin-8 increased significantly at higher histological activity indices and continued to increase in patients with cirrhosis. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) levels increased significantly with the severity of fibrosis, but decreased in cirrhotics. In conclusion, cytokines, chemokines and apoptosis levels reflect the progression of inflammation and fibrosis in hepatitis C infected patients, but their signatures differ.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)126-136
Number of pages11
JournalTranslational Research
Volume149
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2007
Externally publishedYes

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