Level of the cytokine secreted by periferal blood mononuclear cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C before antiviral therapy

Objective: To study the immune state of patients with chronic hepatitis C before antiviral therapy by detecting the levels of the cytokines interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, interferon (IFN)-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha secretion by periferal blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).

Methods: The level of the cytokine secreted by PBMC in patients with chronic hepatitis C after culturing for 72 hours in vitro was detected by ELISA.

Results: (1) Compared with the cytokine level of normal controls, the level of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, and IL-10 of patients with chronic hepatitis C significantly increased (P < 0.05) while IL-2, IL-4, and IL-12 were not detected in the culture supernatant of PBMC from both normal control and patients with chronic hepatitis C. (2) There was no statistically significant difference in secretion of the cytokines among patients with different severity of the disease.

Conclusions: PMBCs from patients with chronic hepatitis C tend to secret Th2 type cytokines. Restoring the imbalance of TH1/TH2 may help to clear the hepatitis C virus.