IL-17 mRNA Expression and Cytomegalovirus Infection in Liver Transplant Patients

Objectives: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) establishes a lifelong, asymptomatic infection in immunocompetent hosts. Interleukin-17 producing CD4+ T-cells (Th-17) are a subtype of CD4+ 1-cells. The precise role of Th-17 responses during cytomegalovirus replication has not been elucidated, although recent studies suggest that infections such as murine cytomegalovirus induce a Th-17 response. Th-17 cells also have been associated with allograft rejection and autoimmune diseases. In this study, we tried to find the relation of cytomegalovirus infection and interleukin 17 (IL-17) cytokine in liver-transplanted patients. Materials and Methods: Two groups of patients were evaluated in this study. The first group consisted of 54 cytomegalovirus uninfected liver-transplanted patients, and the second group consisted of 15 cytomegalovirus-infected patients. Three ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-treated blood samples were collected from each patient on days 1, 4 and 7 post liver transplant. For diagnosing cytomegalovirus infection antigenemia and Taq-Man real-time polymerase chain reaction protocols were used. Also, to determine the expression level of IL-17 gene, an in-house SYBR green real-time polymerase chain reaction technique was used. Results: Using antigenemia and also Taq-Man real-time polymerase chain reaction helps find active cytomegalovirus infection, and the load of cytomegalovirus in each patient. The first group of patients showed that IL-17 expression level was down-regulated after day 4 of sampling. But in cytomegalovirus-infected patients, IL-17 expression level was increased significantly. The results between IL-17 gene expression level between the 2 groups of patients showed that IL-17 expression level significantly increased in second group during day 4 (P=.038) and 7 (P=.009) postliver transplant. Conclusions: Significant increase of IL-17 mRNA levels in cytomegalovirus-infected group compared with the uninfected one reinforced the role of IL-17 as a proinflammatory cytokine dealing with cytomegalovirus infection in liver transplanted patients.