Expression of interleukin-18 in liver tissue of patients with chronic hepatitis B and its clinical significance / 中华临床感染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of interleukin 18 (IL-18) in liver tissues of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and its clinical significance.Methods Totally 172 CHB patients admitted in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2012 to December 2012 were enrolled.The tissue specimens were obtained by liver biopsy from all patients,and 22 normal liver specimens were also collected as controls.Liver function,serum markers of HBV and HBV DNA load were measured and liver inflammation grades and fibrosis stages were assessed.Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of IL-18 in liver tissues.Spearman rank correlation was used to analyze the correlations between IL-18 expression and the above indicators.Results IL-18 was mainly expressed in cytoplasm of liver cells.It was positive or strong positive in liver cells of healthy people,but weakly positive in liver cells of CHB patients.The difference of IL-18 expression between CHB patients and healthy people was of statistical significance (x2 =42.124,P ＜ 0.05).In CHB patients,the expression of IL-18 was gradually enhanced with the increasing of ALT,inflammation grades and fibrosis stages (r =0.182,0.173 and 0.068,P ＜0.05),but it was not correlated with HBV DNA load and HBeAg (r =-0.05 and 0.041,P ＞0.05).Conclusion In CHB patients,the expression of IL-18 may be involved in liver injury and fibrosis formation.