Serum concentration of sFas and sFasL in healthy HBsAg carriers,chronic viral hepatitis B and C patients

AIM:To estimate the amount of apoptosis among healthyHBsAg carriers,patients with chronic HBV infection treatedwibh lamivudine and patients with chronic HCV infection treatedwith interferon alpha and ribavirin.Activity of apoptosis wasevaluated by serum sFas/sFasL concentration measurement.Moreover dependence between apoptosis and HBV-DNA orHCV-RNA levels was studied.METHODS:Eighty-six persons were included into study:34healthy HBsAg carders,33 patients with chronic HBV infecl~onand 19 patients with chronic HCV infection.Serum levels ofsFas/sFasL were measured by ELISA assay.HBV-DNA andHCV-RNA were measured by RT-PCR assay.Levels ofsFas/sFasL were determined before and 2 and 12 wk aftertherapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C infection.HBV-DNA or HCV-RNA was detected before treatment and 6mo after treatment.RESULTS:Twenty-four (71%) healthy HBsAg carders showedHBV-DNA over 10~5/mL,which was comparable to the patientswith chronic hepatitis B.independently from HBV-DNA levels,the concentration of sFas among healthy HBsAg carders wascomparable to healthy persons.Among patients with chronichepatitis B and C,the concentration of sFas was significantlyhigher in comparison to healthy HBsAg carriers and healthypersons.In chronic hepatitis B patients the concentrationof sFas was decreased during lamivudine treatment.Amongchronic hepatitis C patients the concentration of sFas wasincreased during IFN alpha and ribavirin treatment,sFasLwas not detected in control group.Furbhermore sFasL occurredmore frequently in chronic hepatitis C patients in comparisonto chronic hepatitis B patients.CONCLUSION:There are no correlations between apoptosisand HBV-DNA levels.However ther is an association betweenapoptosis and activity of inflammation in patients with chronicHBV infection.Apoptosis can be increased in patients withchronic hepatitis C by effective treatment which may be aresult of apoptosis stimulation by IFN-α.