Th1 Cytokine Profiles in Hepatitis C Virus Infected Patients and Their Contribution to Inflammatory Responses

Background: th1 cytokines are required for host antiviral immune responses. however little is known about the production and progression of cytokines in hepatitis c virus (hcv) infected patients. the aim of this study was to assess the serum levels of th1 cytokines and also their association with inflammatory indicators in hcv-infected and normal individuals.methods: fifty four hcv-infected patients along with thirty one healthy controls were selected using the sequential sampling method. serum levels of interleukine-2 (il-2), interferon-gamma (ifn-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-alfa (tnf-α) was determined in all the precipitants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). moreover serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (alt), aspartat aminotransferase (ast), alkaline phosphatase (alp), c-reactive protein (crp) and rheumatoid factor (rf) were also determined in both patient and control groups.results: the results showed that serum levels of ifn-γ, tnf-α and il-2 were higher in hcv-infected patients than controls group but the difference was significant only for tnf-α (p<0.05). a positive correlation was found between the serum level of tnf-α and il-2 in patient group (p<0.05).conclusion: tnf-α is the main mediator of the acute inflammatory responses to microbial infections and in our study serum level of tnf-α in hcv-infected patients was higher than healthy subjects. positive correlation of serum tnf-α and il-2 levels in hcv-infected patients may contribute to the role of innate immunity in stimulating the adaptive immune responses, thus suggests role of tnf-α in antibody production