The correlation between pretreatment cytokine expression patterns in peripheral blood mononuclear cells with chronic hepatitis c outcome

Joanna Jabłońska, Tomasz Pawłowski, Tomasz Laskus, Małgorzata Zalewska, Małgorzata Inglot, Sylwia Osowska, Karol Perlejewski, Iwona Bukowska-Ośko, Kamila Caraballo Cortes, Agnieszka Pawełczyk, Piotr Ząbek, Marek Radkowski

Cytokine response against hepatitis C virus (HCV) is likely to determine the natural course of infection as well as the outcome of antiviral treatment. However, the role of particular cytokines remains unclear. The current study analyzed activation of cytokine response in chronic hepatitis C patients undergoing standard antiviral treatment. Twenty-two patients were treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Twenty-six different cytokine transcripts were measured quantitatively in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) before and after therapy and correlated with therapy outcome as well as with clinical and liver histological data. We found that patients who achieved sustained virological response (SVR) showed higher pretreatment cytokine response when compared to subjects in whom therapy was unsuccessful. The differentially expressed factors included IL-8, IL-16, TNF-α, GM-CSF, MCP-2, TGF-β, and IP-10. Serum ALT activity and/or histological grading also positively correlated with the expression of IL-1α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-15, GM-CSF, M-CSF, MCP-2 and TGF-β. Pretreatment activation of the immune system, as reflected by cytokines transcripts upregulation, positively correlates with treatment outcome and closely reflects liver inflammatory activity.