Peripheral blood mononuclear cells serve as a possible extrahepatic site for hepatitis C virus replication.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is thought to have a strong tropism for hepatic tissue but also replicative intermediates are found in extrahepatic tissues suggesting active viral replication in these cells. The aim of the study is to confirm that HCV can infect and replicate in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as one of the possible sites of extrahepatic hepatitis C virus replication during the natural course of infection which may serve as a source of virions causing reinfection. Reverse transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for detection of positive and negative strands of HCV-RNA in PBMCs was done for 30 patients with chronic HCV infection admitted to Ain Shams University Hospitals and the results were compared with those from 20 healthy controls matched in age and sex. Our results revealed statistically significant association between both HCV-RNA positive strand and negative strand and both serum HCV-RNA and HCV-Antibody (Ab) (P<0.01).Moreover the association between the presence of HCV positive- and negative-strand RNA in PBMCs was statistically significant (P<0.01). Finally the correlation between HCV positive and negative stranded RNA in PBMCs and extrahepatic complications was statistically significant (P<0 .01). In conclusion our results support previous observations indicating that HCV can infect PBMCs. This is reflected by a higher frequency of extrahepatic complications and diseases associated with chronic HCV infection.