Study of the cytokine transforming growth factor beta-1 in patients with chronic virus hepatitis

This work was conducted on 40 patients with chronic virus hepatitis [21 patients with chronic hepatitis C with bilharzial periportal fibrosis, 2 patients with combined chronic hepatitis B and C and 17 patients with chronic hepatitis C alone] in addition to 10 healthy age and sex matched control subjects. The objective of this work was to study the status of TGF- beta-1 among patients with chronic virus hepatitis and its relation to age and sex and to evaluate the effect of colchicine and oral enzyme therapy on the level of TGF- beta-1. Patients were divided into 2 groups, group I who received oral enzyme therapy and group II who received colchicine, plasma level of TGF- beta-1 was estimated by ELISA with [MEDGENIX TGF- beta-1, ELISA kit] before and after receiving the treatment. It was found that plasma TGF- beta-1 level was significantly higher in patients with chronic virus hepatitis than control group and this level is not related to age or sex. The plasma TGF- beta-1 level was significantly higher in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection with bilharzial periportal fibrosis of liver than in patient with chronic hepatitis C alone, also it was significantly higher in patient with ultrasonographic findings of cirrhosis than those without cirrhosis. The plasma TGF- beta-1 level had no correlation with liver function tests but had positive correlation with serum procollagen III. Before treatment there was no significant difference in clinical picture, laboratory investigations, serum procollagen III and plasma TGF- beta-1 level between group I and group H but after treatment, there was improvement in clinical picture, liver function tests and significant reduction of serum procollagen III and plasma TGF- beta-1 level in group I but not in group II. So it can be concluded that plasma TGF- beta-1 level is a good marker of liver fibrogenesis and oral enzyme therapy is anti-TGF- beta-1 and can reduce the hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

study of serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

Recent advances in molecular medicine have focused attention on cyto-kines in the machinery of inflammation and immune response. Tumor necrosis factor [TNF-alpha] is a cytokine produced primarily by activated mono-cytes and lymphocytes. that posses pleiotropic properties. TNF-alpha has been involved in the pathogenesis of diversity of liver diseases including viral hepatitis. The aim of this study was to investigate a group of patients with histologically documented chronic viral hepatitis for the level of serum TNF-alpha with particular attention to its correlation with disease activity. Thirty patients with biopsy-proven chronic Viral hepatitis and ten healthy controls were studied in this work. Cases included 25 males and 5 females with an age range of 23 to 67 years. Controls included 8 males and 2 females with an age range of 25 to 60 years. Cases were classified into three groups: Group I consisted of 6 cases with chronic hepatitis B, Group II 14 cases with chronic hepatitis C and Group III 10 cases with evidence of combined B and C viral infections. Results revealed that serum TNF alpha levels were significantly increased among patients with chronic viral hepatitis compared to controls. TNF alpha significantly correlated with the severity of the activity of viral infection as gauged by the histological activity index [HAI]. There was. however, no statistically significant difference between the three groups of cases and each other. It was concluded that TNF alpha is a better measure of disease activity than conventional bio chemical liver function tests. Moreover monitoring of TNF alpha along with ALT during treatment might provide more precise information of effectiveness of therapy

Leishmania D. infantum from the spleen of an adult patient with hepatosplenomegaly

The first report that L. d. infantum occurs in an adult patient with hepatosplenomegaly in Egypt. Leishmaniasis should be in mind when dealing with cases with obscure hepatosplenomegaly