The role of plasma transforming growth factor beta-1 in the development of fibrosis in patient with HCV related steatohepatitis.

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 & 3 (p < 0.05). there was highly significant positive correlation between tgfb-1 and body mass index (bmi) r = 0.774.