Determination the role of T helper 17 and T regulatory cell profile in patients with hepatitis C virus in al Qadisyah province- Iraq

Viral hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver that occurred when hepatocytes get infected with virus, one of the causing viruses is HCV a single stranded genome RNA virus, a member of Flaviviridae. The current study aimed to determine the epidemiologic and immune response to the HCV infection with estimation of some liver function aspects. Obtained results showed that the males were higher 35 (61.4%) than females which were 22(38.6%), with tendency to maximum infections in middles ages from 20-50 years old. Collected data for risk factors indicated that it was considerable percentage of infections associated with thalassemia 8 (14%), hemodialysis 6 (10.5%), transfusion 5 (8.8%), hemophilia 6 (10.5 %), household exposure (contacts) 2 (3.5%) and most cases were of unknown origin 30 (52.7%). Results revealed that there is clear statistically significant (p≤0.05) elevation in the serum concentration of IL-17, in patients group the mean concentration was 132.63±18.6 pg/mL while in control group was 96.11± 18.5 pg/mL. Collected data of the gene expression of FoxP3 recorded a high statistically significant (p≤0.05) increment in the expression in the group of patients 7.78±0.21 in comparison to control group which was 1.93±0.026. Liver function test showed that there is remarkable statistical significant (p≤0.05) increment in the concentration of GOT in the group of patients with HCV 52.08±18.7 IU/mL, in comparison to control group which was 18.7±3.3 IU/mL Statistical significant (p≤0.05) elevation in the concentration of GPT in the group of patients with HCV 53.33±18 IU/mL, in comparison to control group which was 18.01±3.7 IU/mL statistically significant (p≤0.05) elevation in the concentration of Alkaline phosphatase in the group of patients with HCV 139.37±12.78 IU/mL, in comparison to control group which was 66.66±5.9 IU/mL. Overall finding of the current study, indicated an active Th-17 response and T-reg cell which orchestrate the immune response along with the process of liver damage ad release the liver enzymes due to apoptosis.