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Immunoregulatory Cytokines in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection. |
| 1Said ZN and 2Abdel Kader MA. |
| 1Departments of Microbiology and 2General Medicine, Faculty of Medicine For Girls, Al-Azhar University. |
T lymphocytes and immunoregulatory cytokines are important in the host response to hepatitis C virus infection. Serum levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were investigated in patients with chronic hepatitis C HCV infection (n=24) and compared with chronic hepatitis patients caused by neither HBL nor HCV (n=10). Correlation of these cytokines with biochemical and viral indicators of infection was done. Level of circulating IL-2 was significantly elevated in HCV patients as well as in patients with chronic hepatitis versus normal controls (14 + 11.3, 24.7 + 12.5 pg/ml for both diseases respectively vs 1 + 2.1 pg/ml., p<0.05). Serum IL-10 showed no significant difference in the studied groups (0.8 + 1.3, 0.4 + 1.3 pg/ml vs 0.8 + 2.1 pg/ml P>0.05). No correlation was found between serum level of either IL-2 or IL-10 and viral burden as defined by HCV RNA The significantly high serum level of IL-2 indicates the establishment of predominant Th-1 type T cell response which can sustain the inflammatory at the site of infection and contribute to the local immunopathology.
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