Vol. 27, no. 1,87-96 (2014)

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IMMUNOPATHOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY

CYTOKINE PROFILES AND HEPATIC INJURY IN OCCULT HEPATITIS C VERSUS CHRONIC HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTION N. MOUSAl, W. ELDARS2, H. ELDEGLA2, O. FOUDA3, Y. GAD3, N. ABOUSAMRA4, E. ELMASRy4 and M. ARAFA5

'Department of Tropical Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt; 'Department ofMedical Microbiology and Immunology, Mansoura University, Egypt; 'Department ofInternal Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt; "Department ofClinical Pathology, Mansoura University, Egypt; 5Department ofPathology, Mansoura University, Egypt Received December 14,2013 -Accepted February 14,2014 Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a new entity that should be considered when diagnosing patients with abnormal liver functions of unknown origin. This work was carried out to evaluate T-helper liT-helper 2 (Thl/Th2) cytokine profiles in patients with occult HCV infection versus chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection, also to investigate any association between theses cytokines and liver histological features in both groups. Serum levels of Thl cytokines (IL-2, IFN-y) and Th2 (IL-4 and IL-IO) were measured in 35 patients with occult HCV infection compared to 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection and 30 healthy controls. We have found that Thl cytokines were significantly increased in patients with CHC infection than in both occult HCV infection and control groups (p