Beschreibung:
<jats:p><jats:italic>BACKGROUND</jats:italic>: The mechanisms leading to hepatic injury in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are only incompletely understood. Recent data propose a correlation of the intrahepatic expression of the CC chemokine RANTES and the degree of periportal and portal inflammatory liver damage.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:italic>Aim</jats:italic>: Here, we have studied the intrahepatic mRNA levels of CC chemokines RANTES together with that of other members of this chemokine family (MIP-1β, MCP-1, and MCP-2) in chronic hepatitis C as compared with healthy controls.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:italic>Methods</jats:italic>: Liver samples from 22 HCV-infected patients, nine individuals with primary biliary cirrhosis and from 12 normal controls were included into this study. Intrahepatic mRNA levels of CC chemokines RANTES, MIP-1β, MCP-1, and MCP-2 were analyzed by a semi-quantitative reverse transcription/real-time polymerase chain reaction assay.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:italic>Results</jats:italic>: In chronic HCV infection, intrahepatic RANTES mRNA levels were significantly higher than in non-infected controls (7.2-fold,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="$p < 0.001$" id="E1"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>) or in the disease control group (2.8-fold,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="$p < 0.001$" id="E2"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>) and higher levels of RANTES mRNA levels were observed in livers with an advanced stage of liver cell injury (histologic activity index ≥6), although this difference was not statistically significant (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="$p = 0.08$" id="E3"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.08</mml:mn></mml:math>). In contrast, mRNA levels of MIP-1β (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="$p = 0.021$" id="E4"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.021</mml:mn></mml:math>) and MCP-1 (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="$p = 0.021$" id="E5"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.021</mml:mn></mml:math>) were significantly lower in HCV liver samples while MCP-2 expression was similar in all groups analyzed.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:italic>Conclusion</jats:italic>: The data support the concept of chemokines as mediators of liver cell injury in chronic hepatitis C.</jats:p>