Liver cirrhosis

   Definition

   Etiologic types of cirrhosis and other end-stage CLD

   Immunological dysfunction in cirrhosis

   Cytokines and their role in liver damage

   Cell adhesion molecules

   Cytokines and treatment of inflammatory liver diseases

   Ethical statement

   Study Subjects

   Diagnosis of cirrhosis and assessment of liver functions

   Diagnosis of the etiology of cirrhosis

   Sample collection and processing for qRT-PCR

   PBMCs separation from whole blood samples

   Real-time PCR for estimation of cytokine and VCAM-1 gene expression

   Statistical Analysis of data

   Basic demographic and laboratory characteristics of the studied groups

   Changes in the cytokine and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM- 1) gene expression levels in PBMCs of patients relative to control group

   Comparisons of the gene expression levels between the viral and nonviral groups

   Correlations of gene expression levels with age and laboratory data in the viral and non-viral groups

   Correlations among different cytokines and VCAM-1 gene expression levels in different patients’ groups

   . Comparisons of the gene expression levels between the different patients’ Child-Pugh classes

   Gene expression levels as a risk for development of Child class C

   Summary

   Conclusion