Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mizukoshi, Eishiro
• Kaneko, Shuichi
• Kaji, Kyosuke
• Terasaki, Shuichi
• Matsushita, Eiki
• Muraguchi, Masahiro
• Ohmoto, Yasukazu
• Kobayashi, Kenichi

Titel

Serum levels of soluble interferon alfa/beta receptor as an inhibitory factor of interferon in the patients with chronic hepatitis C

Ist Teil von

• Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 1999-11, Vol.30 (5), p.1325-1331

Ort / Verlag

Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders

Erscheinungsjahr

1999

Quelle

Access via Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Human serum contains a soluble form of interferon alfa/beta (sIFN α/β) receptors, the functional and clinical significance of which has not been investigated in patients with chronic hepatitis C. In the present study, serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor were assessed in 81 patients with chronic hepatitis C and correlated with the effectiveness of IFN therapy in these patients. Serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor were significantly higher in patients with chronic hepatitis C than in healthy control patients (P < .0001). In these patients, serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor were correlated with those of alanine transaminase (ALT) (P < .05), (2′‐5′)serum oligo(A) synthetase (2‐5AS) (P < .0001), and pathological stages of liver fibrosis (P < .01). In 55 patients with chronic hepatitis C who underwent IFN therapy, there was an inverse correlation between the pretherapeutic serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor and the rate of increase in serum levels of 2‐5AS after the start of IFN (P < .01). Pretherapeutic serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor were significantly lower in patients who showed sustained response to IFN therapy compared with those who did not respond to the therapy (P < .05). Multivariate analysis showed that low levels of serum sIFN α/β receptor (≤4.0 ng/mL) (P < .05) and serological hepatitis C virus genotype II (P < .05) were independent variables contributing to sustained response to IFN therapy. Thus, pretherapeutic serum levels of sIFN α/β receptor were correlated with the effectiveness of IFN therapy, suggesting that sIFN α/β receptor suppresses the effectiveness of IFN therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.