1Fatma A. Auf and 2Nabieh A. El Gawalby
Department of 1Clinical Pathology and 2Gastroenterology Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt.
An imbalance between T helper
cell Th1 and Th2 like cytokines has been described in several chronic
infectious diseases. In an attempt to investigate the immunopathogenesis of
chronic hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and to assess the in vitro T helper response,
we analyzed Th1 cytokine (IL-2) and Th2 cytokine (IL-10) production by
phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)
derived from 39 patients with viremic chronic hepatitis C and 16 healthy
individuals. We used PHA mitogen, a non specific polyclonal activator of T-
lymphocytes, as specific HCV antigens are not available. Cytokine production
was determined in culture supernatant after 48 hours of stimulation by
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that the
production of IL-2 was significantly decreased in patients with chronic
hepatitis C infection as compared to controls (Mean 0.7 ± 0.4 & 2.8 ± 0.6 ng/ml) respectively, P <0.001. On the other hand IL-10 production was significantly increased
in patients compared to controls (Mean 8.3 ± 3.6 & 1.3 ± 0.5 ng/ml) respectively,
P < 0.001. There was a significant negative correlation
between IL-2 and IL-10 production (r - 0.55, P = 000). These results indicated
that a defect in Th1 cytokine (IL-2) and an enhanced Th2 cytokine (IL-10)
Production are found in chronic HCV infection and these may contribute to the
persistence of the disease.