title: Serum RANTES level influences the response to pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy in chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prediction of treatment responses to pegylated interferon (PEG IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy is uncertain for genotype 1b chronic hepatitis C.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 96 patients were investigated for the correlation between 36 pretreatment serum chemokine/cytokine levels and PEG IFN/RBV treatment efficacy by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and a bead array.
  
  
  RESULTS
  First, chemokines/cytokines were measured semiquantitatively by sandwich ELISA in 31 randomly-selected patients and the serum regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) level was found to be significantly higher in the sustained virological response (SVR) group than the non-SVR group (P = 0.048). Precise RANTES measurement in all 96 patients using a bead array confirmed this correlation (P = 0.002). However, the genetic RANTES haplotype was not significantly related to the serum level. The serum RANTES level was extracted by multivariate analysis (odds ratio = 4.09, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-16.5, P = 0.048) as an independent variable contributing to SVR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The serum RANTES level is an important determinant influencing the virological response to PEG IFN/RBV therapy in chronic hepatitis C.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Komase
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sueki
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kadokura
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shindo
authors.forename: Kuniaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shindo
authors.forename: Fumitake
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Amemiya
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Taisuke
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Atsuya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Kohji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moriishi
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Enomoto
keywords: RANTES; hepatitis C virus; pegylated interferon plus ribavirin therapy