ABSTRACT
Background: One of the most important factors affecting HCV pathogenesis are cytokines. Up till now most of the researches revealed enhanced hepatic expression of the Th1 cytokines in individuals with chronic HCV. However this is not enough to explain the pathogenesis of HCV. Therefore, studying of more advanced mechanisms of recently discovered cytokines may be helpful in solving this problem
Objective: The aim of the present work was to study the serum level of IL-18 in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Virus infection with and without liver cirrhosis and in hepatocellular carcinoma
Methods: The study was conducted on fifty subjects classified into four groups Group I: included twenty patients with chronic HCV virus infection without liver cirrhosis. Group II: enrolled ten patients with chronic HC V virus infection with liver cirrhosis. Group III: compromised of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma on top of chronic HCV, Group IV: ten healthy subjects with matching age and sex were enrolled as controls. IL-18 was measured in serum by ELISA
Results: Mean Serum IL-18 [pg/ml], were 383.12 +/- 87.93 , 710.5 +/- 212.92, 836.5 +/- 116.83 and 197 +/- 14.37 pg/ml in the four groups respectively The results revealed that serum IL-18 increased significantly in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma more than chronic HC V patients [ with and without cirrhosis]. Moreover, patients with cirrhosis had significantly higher levels of serum IL-18 than in non-cirrhotics and controls. A positive correlation was found between serum IL-18 and Child Pugh scoring in groups II and 111 patients [r = 0.86, 0.94 respectively] [p = 0.00 in both groups], as well as with histopathological [necroinflammatory] grading in groups I and II [r=0.82, 0.98 respectively ][ p=0. 00]
Conclusions: From the previous results we can conclude that IL-18 is involved in the activity of the disease process and might have a prognostic value in the progression of liver cirrhosis and HCC