Department of Tropical Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Mansoura University, Egypt.
Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2014 Jan-Mar;27(1):87-96. doi: 10.1177/039463201402700111.
Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a new entity that should be considered when diagnosing patients with abnormal liver functions of unknown origin. This work was carried out to evaluate T-helper 1/T-helper 2 (Th1/Th2) cytokine profiles in patients with occult HCV infection versus chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection, also to investigate any association between theses cytokines and liver histological features in both groups. Serum levels of Th1 cytokines (IL-2, IFN-gamma) and Th2 (IL-4 and IL-10) were measured in 35 patients with occult HCV infection compared to 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection and 30 healthy controls. We have found that Th1 cytokines were significantly increased in patients with CHC infection than in both occult HCV infection and control groups (p less than 0.001). On the other hand, serum IL-4 levels were higher in occult HCV infection than in CHC and control groups (p less than 0.001). Furthermore, serum IL-10 levels were higher in both patient groups vs control group (pless than 0.001), with no significant difference between CHC and occult HCV groups. Finally, only serum IL-10 levels were significantly higher among patients with high activity (A2-A3) than those with low activity (A0-A1) in both CHC and occult HCV groups (p=0.038, p=0.025, respectively). Patients with occult HCV infection exhibited a distinct immunoregulatory cytokine pattern that is shifted towards the Th2 arm.
隐匿性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染是一种新的实体，在诊断不明原因肝功能异常的患者时应考虑这一感染。本研究旨在评估隐匿性 HCV 感染患者与慢性丙型肝炎（CHC）感染患者的 Th1/Th2（辅助性 T 细胞 1/辅助性 T 细胞 2）细胞因子谱，并探讨这两组患者细胞因子与肝组织学特征之间的任何相关性。与 50 例慢性丙型肝炎感染患者和 30 例健康对照者相比，我们检测了 35 例隐匿性 HCV 感染患者血清 Th1 细胞因子（IL-2、IFN-γ）和 Th2（IL-4 和 IL-10）的水平。我们发现，与隐匿性 HCV 感染和对照组相比，CHC 感染患者的 Th1 细胞因子显著升高（p＜0.001）。另一方面，隐匿性 HCV 感染患者血清 IL-4 水平高于 CHC 和对照组（p＜0.001）。此外，两组患者血清 IL-10 水平均高于对照组（p＜0.001），但 CHC 组与隐匿性 HCV 组之间无显著差异。最后，CHC 和隐匿性 HCV 两组中，活动度高（A2-A3）患者的血清 IL-10 水平明显高于活动度低（A0-A1）患者（p=0.038，p=0.025）。隐匿性 HCV 感染患者表现出明显的免疫调节细胞因子模式，向 Th2 方向倾斜。
