Monitoring of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C by circulating biomarkers

• Grant number: 12/14477-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2012
• End date: October 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Márjorie de Assis Golim
• Grantee: Márjorie de Assis Golim
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alexandre Naime Barbosa ; Giovanni Faria Silva ; Michele Janegitz Acorci Valerio ; Paulo Eduardo de Abreu Machado

Abstract

The chronic hepatitis C virus is a cause of chronic liver disease affecting about 3% of world population, approximately 170 million people. Investigations on the immune response in individuals infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is justified by the fact that this form infectious disease whose immunologic changes are directly related to the development and maintenance of infection. This project aims to assess aspects that make up the cellular immune response of patients with chronic hepatitis C in different degrees of liver involvement. Are evaluated immunophenotypic characteristics of peripheral blood leukocytes (NK cells, dendritic cells and monocytes), and levels of cytokines and chemokines plasma (TGF-b, TNF-a, CCL2, CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CXCL8, CXCL9, CXCL10) relating to the degree of liver damage, analyzing the input of the evaluation with immunologic markers of disease progression (AU)