Afshari Afsoon, Yaghobi Ramin, Karimi Mohammad Hossein, Darbouy Mojtaba, Azarpira Negar, Geramizadeh Bita, Malek-Hosseini Seyed Ali, Nikeghbalian Saman
From the Department of Molecular Genetics, Science and Research, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran.
Exp Clin Transplant. 2015 Apr;13 Suppl 1:83-9.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) establishes a lifelong, asymptomatic infection in immunocompetent hosts. Interleukin-17 producing CD4+ T-cells (Th-17) are a subtype of CD4+ T-cells. The precise role of Th-17 responses during cytomegalovirus replication has not been elucidated, although recent studies suggest that infections such as murine cytomegalovirus induce a Th-17 response. Th-17 cells also have been associated with allograft rejection and autoimmune diseases. In this study, we tried to find the relation of cytomegalovirus infection and interleukin 17 (IL-17) cytokine in liver-transplanted patients.
Two groups of patients were evaluated in this study. The first group consisted of 54 cytomegalovirus uninfected livertransplanted patients, and the second group consisted of 15 cytomegalovirus-infected patients. Three ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-treated blood samples were collected from each patient on days 1, 4 and 7 post liver transplant. For diagnosing cytomegalovirus infection antigenemia and Taq-Man real-time polymerase chain reaction protocols were used. Also, to determine the expression level of IL-17 gene, an in-house SYBR green real-time polymerase chain reaction technique was used.
Using antigenemia and also Taq-Man real-time polymerase chain reaction helps find active cytomegalovirus infection, and the load of cytomegalovirus in each patient. The first group of patients showed that IL-17 expression level was down-regulated after day 4 of sampling. But in cytomegalovirus-infected patients, IL-17 expression level was increased significantly. The results between IL-17 gene expression level between the 2 groups of patients showed that IL-17 expression level significantly increased in second group during day 4 (P = .038) and 7 (P = .009) postliver transplant.
Significant increase of IL-17 mRNA levels in cytomegalovirus-infected group compared with the uninfected one reinforced the role of IL-17 as a proinflammatory cytokine dealing with cytomegalovirus infection in liver transplanted patients.
巨细胞病毒（CMV）在免疫功能正常的宿主中建立终生无症状感染。产生白细胞介素-17的CD4+T细胞（Th-17）是CD4+T细胞的一个亚型。尽管最近的研究表明，诸如鼠巨细胞病毒等感染可诱导Th-17反应，但Th-17反应在巨细胞病毒复制过程中的精确作用尚未阐明。Th-17细胞也与同种异体移植排斥反应和自身免疫性疾病有关。在本研究中，我们试图找出肝移植患者中巨细胞病毒感染与白细胞介素17（IL-17）细胞因子之间的关系。
本研究评估了两组患者。第一组由54例未感染巨细胞病毒的肝移植患者组成，第二组由15例感染巨细胞病毒的患者组成。在肝移植后的第1、4和7天从每位患者采集三份经乙二胺四乙酸处理的血样。采用抗原血症诊断巨细胞病毒感染，并使用Taq-Man实时聚合酶链反应方案。此外，为了确定IL-17基因的表达水平，使用了一种内部SYBR绿色实时聚合酶链反应技术。
使用抗原血症以及Taq-Man实时聚合酶链反应有助于发现活动性巨细胞病毒感染以及每位患者的巨细胞病毒载量。第一组患者显示，采样第4天后IL-17表达水平下调。但在感染巨细胞病毒的患者中，IL-17表达水平显著升高。两组患者之间IL-17基因表达水平的结果显示，肝移植后第4天（P = 0.038）和第7天（P = 0.009）第二组的IL-17表达水平显著升高。
与未感染组相比，巨细胞病毒感染组中IL-17 mRNA水平的显著升高强化了IL-17作为一种促炎细胞因子在肝移植患者应对巨细胞病毒感染中的作用。
