Serum Levels of IL-10 and IL-17A in Occult HBV-Infected South-East Iranian Patients

Occult hepatitis b infected (obi) patients can not completely eradicate hepatitis b virus-dna(hbv-dna) from their liver and peripheral blood. the main aim of this study was to investigate the interleukin (il)-10and il-17a serum levels in patients suffering from obi.material and methods: in this observational study, plasma samples of 3700 blood donors were tested for hepatitis bsurface antigen (hbsag) and antibodies to the hepatitis b core antigen (anti-hbc), using enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay (elisa). the hbsag-/anti-hbc+ samples were selected and screened for hbv-dna, using the polymerase chainreaction (pcr). hbv-dna positive samples were assigned as obi cases and il-10 and il-17 serum levels were detectedusing elisa.results: the results demonstrated that, 352 (9.5%) out of 3700 blood samples were hbsag-/anti-hbc+ and hbv-dnawas detected in 57/352 (16.1%) of the hbsag-/anti-hbc+ samples. our results showed that the il-10 and il-17a serumlevels increased significantly in the obi cases in comparison to the controls (p < 0.001).conclusions: according to the results of this study the higher level of il-10 production may suppress the functioning ofthe immune system against hbv in obi patients. the elevated il-17a serum level also indicates a long period of infectionin the patients observed.