| IFN therapy is the most effective therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) , it has been effective in decreasing the level of serum aminotrans-ferase(ALT) and reducing liver inflammation and fibrosis. However only approximately 50% of patients respond to IFN therapy, and half of them relapse after cessation of treatment. Several predictive factors of response to IFN therapy in patients with CHC have been reported, including the amount of HCV-RNA, the genotype of HCV and the histological changes of the liver, but these factors can not predict the outcome after IFN therapy completely. The IFN molecule itself has no antiviral effect. It must bind to IFN receptor on the cell surface, and induce a series of intracellular signal transduction, and finally the antiviral activity in cells is established by proteins induced by IFN. So receptor binding is an essential first step to its antiviral activity. Therefore, some researchers have suggested that the amount of IFN receptors is also an important predictor to IFN therapy. Several studies have demonstrated that expression of IFNAR1 (IFNa receptor) and/or IFNAR2 (IFNo/3 receptor) mRNA in liver might be correlative with IFN response, and the expression of IFNAR1 and/or IFNAR2 mRNA were significant higher in the b'ver of responders than that of nonresponders. Meanwhile, the expression of IFNAR2 mRNA in the b'ver was correlative to that in PBMCs in the patients with CHC. In this study, our aim is to investigate the expression of IFN AR2 mRNA in PBMCs of patients with HCV infection, and investigate the relationship between the expression of IFNAR2 mRNA and patients' clinical features, in order to explore whether expression of IFNAR2 mRNA can be used to predict the outcome of IFN therapy in patients with CHC.MethodAccording to the infective history, liver function and image feature of liver, 58 cases with HCV infection were divided into 3 groups. 4 of acute hepatitis, 46 of chronic hepatitis, and 8 of liver cirrhosis. Another 15 cases of healthy volunteers without any hepatitis virus infection were acted as controls. PBMCs were separated from 4 ml heparinized blood by density gradient centrifugation. RNA was extracted from PBMCs using Trozol Reagent and the PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA was amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. The PCR products were subjected to electrophoresis on 2% agarose gel, strained with ethidium bromide, visualized by UV light and photographed with gel image system. The quantity of IFNAR2 mRNA was determined by comparing the density of the PCR products of IFNAR2 mRNA with that of G3PDH mRNA. Meanwhile, total RNA was used for determination of PBMCs HCV-RNA and the results were marked by " positive" or " negative".ResultAll cases with HCV infection and cases without hepatitis virus infection had expression of G3PDH mRNA, suggesting the correct extraction of RNA. The prevalence of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA was 87. 9% (51/58 cases) in the patients with HCV infection, and it was 33. 3% (5/15 cases) in the control group, which showed expression of IFNAR2 mRNA was significant higher in the cases with HCV infection than that in control group ( p < 0.05 ). The prevalence of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA in chronic hepatitis group was 93. 5% (43/46 cases) , significant higher than that in liver cirrhosis group (p <0. 05). Expression of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA had no significant differences between PBMCs HCV-RNA "positive" and "negative" cases and had no relationship with concentration of serum HCV-RNA and genotype of HCV.ConclusionExpression of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA was significant higher in the patients with HCV infection than in healthy volunteers, which suggesting infection of HCV could upregulate the expression of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA. And it expressed significantly higher in patients with CHC than in cirrhosis patients, which suggesting that expression of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA might be correlative with liver fibrosis progression. Expression of PBMCs IFNAR2 mRNA has no relationship with concentration of serum HCV-RNA and genotype of...
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