title: [A quantitative analysis of IL-6 mRNA expression of peripheral blood monocyte cell in patients with chronic hepatitis B].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship of interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA expression with the immunopathogenesis and viral clearance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The serum IL-6 level of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were detected by ELISA and quantitatively the IL-6 mRNA expression of peripheral blood monocyte cell (PBMC) in patients with CHB were analysed by competitive RT-PCR-ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum level of IL-6 in patients with CHB was significantly increased. Both expression rates of IL-6 mRNA target fragment in control and in patients with CHB were 41.7% (5/12) and 82.1% (23/28) respectively. The quantitative ELISA of production of RT-PCR showed the copies of IL-6 mRNA in 5 cases of control were 1 000 to 10 000 (the mean log copies was 3.65), while the copies of IL-6 mRNA in 23 cases of patients were all more then 10 000 (the mean log copies was 4.40).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows that the increased level of IL-6 may play some role in hepatitis B infection, the increased serum level of IL-6 is related to the enhanced expression of IL-6 mRNA of PBMC.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Biology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230028, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000235:genetics*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D012333:RNA, Messenger