الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 51 |  |  |
| | | from | 51 | | |
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus is a small enveloped single-stranded positive-sense RNA
virus. It is a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide with the highest
prevalence in Egypt >10% of the general population. HCV is considered the
main cause of hepatic morbidity with its progression to cirrhosis and HCC.
HCV cell entry is a multi-step process, involving several viral and cellular
factors that trigger virus uptake into the hepatocyte. The role of the LDL
receptor in viral particles entry has recently been suggested. In addition,
HCV modulates host lipid metabolism which are essential in HCV life cycle.
The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between expression
of LDLR on peripheral lymphocytes and hepatitis C-RNA viral load.
This study was carried out on 60 patients with chronic HCV and 20
volunteers as a control group and classified into three groups:
Group 1: 40 chronic HCV patients with no past history of interferon
treatment (23 males and 17 females), their ages ranged from 21 to 48 years.
Group 2: 20 chronic HCV patients who have been treated with interferon
(12 males and 8 females), their ages ranged from 26 to 48 years.
Group 3: 20 apparently healthy volunteers as control group (13 males and 7
females), their ages ranged from 22 to 39 years.
Our results showed the following:
• No statistically significant difference between HCV cases, post interferon
treatment and control group as regards age and sex.
• As regards CBC parameters:
Significant difference between HCV cases and post interferon treatment
cases and this may be attributed to the bone marrow suppressive effect of
interferon.
• Significant difference between HCV cases, post interferon treatment cases
and control as regards ALT and AST and this regards to cellular immune
responses, modulated by peg IFN and ribavirin play a role in forced viral
eradication.
• No significant difference between HCV cases, post interferon treatment
cases and control group regarding serum lipid profile as the cases were early
chronic and there is neither liver damage nor cirrhosis.
• Significant difference between HCV cases, post interferon treatment and
control group as regards anti HCV antibodies results and this due to
presence of IgG several years after infection and also after interferon
treatment.
• Significant difference between HCV cases, post interferon treatment cases
and control. But no significant difference between post interferon treatment
and control regarding LDLR %.
• Positive correlation between LDL-R %, LDLR-MFI and viral load in HCV
cases and this regards to the role of LDLR in entry of the virus as well as its
replication.
• Significant correlation between LDL-R%, LDL-R MFI and each of platelets,
ALT and AST but no significant correlation between LDL-R%, LDL-R MFI
and each of age, HB, WBCs count, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, S.
albumin, INR, cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL-C and LDL-C among the
studied groups.