ABSTRACT
Hepatitis C virus [HCV] is a major public health problem worldwide, which causes high rate of chronic liver disease such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Plasma transforming growth factor Beta-1 [TGFB-1] is a member of large family of peptides, which has a major regulatory role in hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis. The study evaluated the role of transforming growth factor Beta-1 [TGFB-1] in induction of fibrosis in liver parasites-free HCV patients with related steatohepatitis. Thirty HCV patients who were clinically and serologically positive were selected. They were diagnosed as fatty liver by abdominal ultrasonography; steatohepatitis and confirmed by histopathological biopsies examination. ELISA evaluated plasma transforming growth factor Beta-1 [TGFB-1] level. Also, 12 cross-matched subjects clinically, parasitologically and serologically free were used as a controls. The level of plasma transforming growth factor Beta-1 [TGFB-1] was highly elevated in the patients versus controls with mean +/- SD 18739.86 +/- 18539.46 and 6465 +/- 1142 respectively [P < 0.001]. The TGFB-1 level in HCV related steato-hepatitis was elevated in all grades in contrast to controls [P < 0.05], without relation between the TGFB-1 levels and steatohepatitis severity. The TGFB-1 level showed high significant difference in all stages of fibrosis in patients in contrast to controls and the TGFB-1 level was very high when fibrosis started in stage I [P < 0.01] and tended to decrease in fibrosis of stage 2 and 3 [P < 0.05]. There was highly significant positive correlation between TGFB-1 and body mass index [BMI] r = 0.774