ABSTRACT
The rapidly increasing use of organophosphorous compounds in everyday life obligate that greater attention should be paid to the toxic effect exerted by these compounds of human organism. To investigate the effect of chronic exposure to organophosphorous insecticides on liver at chronic hepatitis C virus infection and the chance of development to hepatocellular carcinoma, through studying apoptosis by the measurements of soluble Fas. This study was carried out on sixty subjects; they were divided into six groups: The first control group composed of 10 healthy subjects. The second group composed of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with chronic hepatitis C virus and chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The third group composed of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with chronic hepatitis C virus. The fourth group composed of ten patients with chronic hepatitis C virus and chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The fifth group composed of ten patients with chronic hepatitis C virus. The sixth group composed of ten patients with chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The time of exposure to organophosphorous was chosen to be over than 10 years. For all groups we do the following investigation: Detection of anti-HCV and HbsAg by ELISA technique, quantitative determination of HCV RNA by real time PCR, estimation of serum levels of bilirubin; albumin level and serum activities of aspartate and alanine aminotransferase; gamma glutamyl transferase activity [GOT]; and prothrombin time, determination of paraoxonase [PON] activity, and determination of sFas by ELISA. All patients show hyperactivity of AST, ALT, and GOT, hypoactivity of PON and high level of sFas. Chronic exposures to organophosphorous giving a high chance to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma by decreasing apoptosis and this risk is further exaggerated by the presence of previous chronic hepatic inflammation as chronic HCV