Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Medical Biochemistry

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is remarkable at disrupting human immunity to establish chronic infection. Chronic HCV is associated with T cell imbalance, Also IFN-Ü and/or ribavirin used in the treatment of chronic HCV cause teffs / tregs imbalance and this imbalance is associated with autoantibodies production with or without autoimmune hepatitis. The main objectives of the present study to investigate how Tregs are regulated in patients chronically infected with HCV (by measuring Tregs markers granzyme 2, CD69 and FoxP3) and to investigate the effect of IFN-a and/or ribavirin on Teffs/Tregs balance and to study the association of Teffs / Tregs balance with the presence of antinuclear antibody (by measuring Teffs markers TNFRSF4, CD4, CD25 and INFG). The study was conducted on 120 patients classified into 4 groups; Group I. (30 persons): included healthy subjects served as a control group, Group II. (30 patients): included treatment naïve HCV chronically infected patients, Group III. (30 patients): included HCV chronically infected patients treated with IFN- Ü and/or ribavirin (the standard of care therapy), Group VI. (30 patients): included HCV chronically infected patients with associated non organ specific autoantibody

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