Background: Chronic viral hepatitis is histologically characterized by predominantly periportal infiltration of mononuclear cells, including lymphocytes and monocytes/macrophages. Intralobular infiltration of these inflammatory cells is an ominous sign of deterioration and a criterion for disease activity.
Objective: To assess the monocyte inflammatory milieu, monocytes adhesion molecules, their endothelial receptors, cytokines and chemokines in patients with HCV induced chronic liver disease, in an attempt to clarify the role of blood monocytes in induction of inflammation and fibrogenesis in chronic hepatitis C liver disease.
Subjects and methods: The current study included 60 patients with chronic liver disease categorized into 2groups: Patients chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), 15 patients each; 15 healthy subjects were included as normal controls. Immunophenotype characterization was carried out by flowcytometric analysis for identification of CD11a, CD11b and CD49d monocyte surface antigen expression in different groups studied. The circulating levels of the soluble adhesion molecules (sE-selectin, sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1), cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1) and chemokines (MCP-1) were also assessed by immunoassays.
Results: Data demonstrated a significant increase (p<0.01) in the surface expression of CD11a on peripheral blood monocytes and in the circulating levels sE-selectins, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 and TNF-α in both groups of patients compared to healthy subjects. Data also revealed a significant increase (p<0.01) in the surface expression of each of CD11b and CD49d on peripheral blood monocytes and in the circulating levels sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 and TNF-α in patients with LC compared to those with CHC. Moreover, data demonstrated that the increase in surface antigen expression of each CD11a (p<0.01), CD11b (p<0.05) and CD49d (p<0.01) on circulating peripheral blood monocytes is positively correlated with the increase in the circulating levels of each of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in the both groups of patients.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the modulation of monocyte-subset recruitment into the liver via adhesion molecules or cytokines/cytokine receptors may represent promising approaches for therapeutic interventions in human liver fibrosis. Measurement of serum soluble adhesion molecules may be useful for monitoring progression of liver inflammation and fibrosis during CHC.