Assessment of Dendritic Cells DCs Function in Chronic HCV Infection

We studied some of secretory function of dendritic cells among patients with chronic HCV infection at Zagazig University hospitals Twenty naive non treated patients with chronic HCV infection. the level of their cytokines namely: IFN-γ and IL-10 were detected in cell culture supernatant from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells PBMCs compared to twenty healthy persons who were age and sex matched to patients The results of our study showed significantly lower level of IFN-γ &higher level of IL-10 in patients group in comparison to healthy group These results confirm the previously reported findings of several single center and multicenter studies that documented significantly lower level of IFN-γ and higher level of IL-10 in patients group in comparison to healthy group We also confirmed the previous reports of that significantly increased level of ALT in patient group in comparison to healthy group. We observed that significant positive correlations between PCR and ALT and IL-10 of patient group In our study, there was a significant negative correlation between IFN-γ and IL-10 of patient group. These results confirmed the previously reported findings of several studies This study revealed that no significant correlations of serum HCV-RNA titer was noted with the grades of liver necro-inflammatory activity and the stages of liver fibrosis, these results confirmed the previously reported findings of several studies.