Abstract

Objective To investigate the changes and clinical significance of peripheral blood CTLA-4 in patients with chronic hepatitis C.Methods Fifty-five patients with chronic hepatitis C and 41 healthy control were enrolled in this study.Peripheral blood monouclear cells(PBMC)were isolated.The related mRNA expressions of CTLA-4 were measured by RT-PCR;HCV RNA was detected by realtime RT-PCR.Results The level of CTLA-4 mRNA increased in chronic hepatitis C,with 3.47-time higher than those in healthy controls.The expression of CTLA-4 mRNA significantly increased in HCV genotype 1b than those in HCV genotype 2a,with 3.81-time higher(P ＜ 0.05).The levels of CTLA-4 mRNA increased in patients with ALT and AST more than 3 upper normal levels (P =0.026 ＜ 0.05).Conclusions HCV infection result in immunologic tolerance,which is more severe in HCV genotype lb.It is possible that the decrease expression of CTLA-4 gene would start inflammatory response and favour persistent hepatocellular lesion in chronic hepatitis C.CTLA-4 may take part in the immune tolerance induced by the HCV infection and play an important role in chronic HCV infection. Key words: CTLA-4; Chronic hepatitis C; Immunologic tolerance

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