The Efficacy of Peg-IFNα Anti-viral Treatment Were Evaluated by Variation of Peripheral Th17 Cells in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

IL-17-producing T helper (Th17) cells have been shown to play an important role in many liver diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in the frequency of Th17 cells in peripheral blood of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. The Th17 frequencies of 36 chronic hepatitis C patients were compared with those of 20 normal controls. All samples were quantitatively analyzed by flow cytometer. Serum IL-17 levels were evaluated using the ELISA assay. There was a higher frequency of circulating Th17 cells and IL-17 levels in CHC patients than controls (3.46±1.53% and 2.05±0.88% for Th17 cells, 86.21±29.28 pg/ml and 58.05±14.17 pg/ml for IL-17 levels) (P < 0.01). There were no significant differences in Th17 frequency and IL-17 levels between the groups of CHC patients with HCV RNA genotype 1b and 2a. The percentage of circulating Th17 cells increased significantly, correlating positively with ALT and negatively with HCVRNA. After 4 weeks of pegIFNα-2a treatment, the patients who acquired rapid virological response (RVR) had a higher pretreatment Th17 frequency compared with that of patients without RVR. During the 24 weeks of treatment with peg-IFNα-2a, Th17 cell frequency increased during the initial 4 weeks, then subsequently declined. In conclusion, Th17 cells and IL-17 were significantly increased in CHC patients and they were a positive correlation with ALT but a negative correlation with HCV RNA. Results suggest that an increase in Th17 cells is associated with inflammatory liver damage and persistent infection of HCV. The characteristics of Th17 variation during peg-IFNα-2a treatment imply that Th17 cells may serve as potent immunological markers for evaluating the efficacy of peg-IFNα anti-viral treatment. 