Журнал инфектологии (Sep 2014)

The immunologic characteristic of the stages of chronic hepatitis C and an assessment of immune system factors as prognostic criteria of a current disease

  • V. Yu. Nikitin,
  • I. A. Sukhina,
  • V. N. Tsigan,
  • D. A. Gusev

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22625/2072-6732-2009-1-1-30-40
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 1
pp. 30 – 40

Abstract

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In the present study factors of immune system in peripheral blood (PB) of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHС) with the different degree of fibrosis were determined. Patients with CHC have been divided into groups, according to the stages of disease: weak fibrosis F1 (n=32), moderate fibrosis F2 (n=22), heavy fibrosis F3 (n=19) and cirrhosis of liver F4 (n=13). The following subpopulations of T-lymphocytes have been investigated: CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3+CD16+56+, CD3+CD25+, CD3+HLA-DR+, CD3+CD4+CD25+, CD3+CD8+CD25+, CD3+CD4+HLA-DR+, CD3+CD8+HLA-DR+, CD3+CD95+. Besides, the subpopulations of В-cells (CD19+, CD3CD25+, CD19+CD95+), Ig A, IgM, IgG, highly-, medial-, low-molecular circulating immune complexes (CIC), cytokines Th1 (IFN-γ),Th2 (IL-4, IL-10) types, as well as proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β were defined. This research showed that the patient with the high degree of fibrosis have the increased quantity NKT (CD3+CD16+56+) and total count of activated T-cells HLA-DR (CD3+HLA-DR+) and the tendency for growing percentages of activated cytotoxic T-cells (CD8+CD25+ and CD8+HLA-DR+), which reflects the evolution of autoimmune reactions as the disease continues.These results have shown that in the higher stages of fibrosis the patients with CHC increased activity of T-cells immunity and constant antigen-specific or non-specific stimulation of T-lymphocytes may play a significant role in pathogenesis of CHC.With the increase of the fibrosis degree in patient with CHС, levels of IgA, IgG, medium-, low-molecular CIC, cytokines IFN-γ, IL-10 were increasing and the quantity of activated B-cells (CD3–CD25+) were decreasing. The research shows the domination of the B-cells response while the function of B-lymphocytes are injured and also are observed Th1/Th2 disbalance at all stages of disease. Besides, the direct correlation between CD95-antigen (Fas/APO-1) and activated CD3+CD4+CD25+, CD3+CD8+CD25+, CD3CD25+ subsets of lymphocytes was found. The established changes of the factors of the immune system can be used as the prognostic criteria of CHC.

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