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Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection: Relationship Between Riba-3 Seropositivity, Knodell Score Of Hisotopathological Changes And Intra-Hepatic CD4+ and CD8+ T Cells. |
| 1Said ZN, 2Nooh MA, 3El Shazly SA, 2Sabry HS and 4Abdel Hadi AM. |
| 1Department of Microbiology, 3Department Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine For Girls, Al-Azhar University, 2Department of Tropical Medicine, Menoufia University and 4Department of Pathology, Theodor Bilhariz Institute. |
A group of 25 patients with serological confirmed chronic hepatitis - C virus (HCV) infection were the subjects of this study. HCV antibodies were detected by both enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) and by recombinant antigen-immuno blot assay (RIBA) 3rd generation kits. Liver biopsies were either needle drawn or sectioned (wedge) during abdominal surgery. Histopathological staining and immuno - staining were done for the detection of CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes. Nineteen out of the 25 sera with anti HCV positivity were RIBA-3 antibody positive, 2/25 were indeterminate and 4/25 were RIBA -3 negative. Five different patterns of positivity were shown in RIBA - 3 in which NS3 and core antigens were the most common reactive antigens. Out of the 19 RIBA - 3 seropositive cases, 3 showed chronic persistent hepatitis, 12 showed chronic active hepatitis and 4 showed HCV related liver cirrhosis. RIBA - 3 NS3 antibody detection was a useful serological assay for HCV as its results correlated with the histopathological findings. This study also clearly demonstrated, by immunohistochemical staining, the residence of CD4+ T cells within liver sections of chronic HCV patients, their presence at the site where chronic infection and inflammation occur suggests they are effect or cells of the immune response to HCV. Non of the liver biopsies contained intrahepatic CD8+ T cells. Further studies with larger numbers of liver wedge section biopsies are necessary to clarify the roles of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the pathogenesis of chronic HCV infection.
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