The serum level of interleukin-12 among patients with HCV infection.

The aim of investigation was to study cytokine-producing ability of blood immune cells in type of viral hepatitis C, correlation with the degree of hepatic lesion and liver cirrhosis. 130 patients were investigated: 20 with acute hepatitis C; 38 with chronic hepatitis C; 72 with cirrhosis: among them 10 with Stage A, 14 with Stage B and 48 with Stage C. Also we used 30 healthy people as the controls. The study demonstrates significant changes of cytokine-producing ability of blood immune cells type of viral hepatitis C, correlation with the degree of hepatic lesion and liver cirrhosis. The serum contents of IL-12 in chronic HCV patients is higher than in patients with acute HCV infection and in patients with liver cirrhosis The results showed that various types of acute, chronic viral hepatitis C and stages of cirrhosis were associated with misbalance in production of proinflammatory cytokine, i. e. a rise of interleukin-12 concentration versus the controls., which were the most prominent in cases of severe hepatic lesion.