ABSTRACT
AIM: To investigate the expression level of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in the liver of the patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) complicated with non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD). METHODS: The study enrolled 21 CHB with NAFLD patients and 46 CHB without NAFLD patients as the controls. Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were applied to detect the expression of MCP-1 at the mRNA and protein levels in the liver tissues, respectively. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to analyze the difference between the CHB patients with and without NAFLD. RESULTS: The mRNA relative expression level of MCP-1 in CHB+NAFLD group was 0.034 (0.024-0.058), higher than that in the control group 0.016 (0.012-0.024). The immunohistochemical score was 8.7±2.5 in CHB+NAFLD group and 6.2±3.5 in the control group. The difference in MCP-1 expression at the both protein and mRNA levels was significant statistically between the two groups (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: MCP-1 expression level in the liver is higher in CHB with NAFLD patients than that in CHB without NAFLD patients.
