Relationship between the intrahepatic expression of interferon-alpha receptor mRNA and the histological progress of hepatitis C virus-associated chronic liver diseases.
Histological progress is one of the predictors of an unfavourable response to interferon (IFN) therapy in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated chronic liver diseases (CLD). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether histological progress has an association with the expression of IFN receptor (IFN-Rc) in the liver. Expression of mRNA of the IFN-Rc for IFN-alpha was investigated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction using liver biopsy specimens from 37 HCV-associated CLD comprising 11 liver cirrhosis (LC) and 26 chronic hepatitis (CH) cases. IFN-alpha and IFN-beta mRNA were detected in over 90% of subjects. In contrast, the detection rate of IFN-Rc mRNA in chronic persistent hepatitis, chronic hepatitis 2A, chronic hepatitis 2B and liver cirrhosis (LC) was 100, 71.4, 22.2 and 0%, respectively. The absence of IFN-Rc mRNA was significantly associated with the severity of fibrosis of the liver. These results indicated that IFN-Rc expression decreases with the histological progress of the disease, suggesting that lower expression of IFN-Rc mRNA may be partially responsible for the poor IFN response in LC.
Ishimura
N
N
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Shimane Medical University, Japan.
Fukuda
R
R
Fukumoto
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000235:genetics; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000235:genetics; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D053633:Receptor, Interferon alpha-beta; D017471:Receptors, Interferon / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral; D017471:Receptors, Interferon; D053633:Receptor, Interferon alpha-beta; D016899:Interferon-beta