Immunological indices in the chronic course of hepatitis C
The article presents the results of a study of the immunological status in 102 patients with chronic hepatitis С A comparative analysis of the main indices of cellular and humoral immunity was carried out in groups of patients that differed in the results of detection of HCV RNA in blood serum, and of the indices of the control group of 20 practically healthy individuals. The results permitted to determine that the chronic course of hepatitis С was associated with changes of cellular and humoral immunity (T- and B-cellular immunity deficiency, hyperimmunoglobulinemia A and G, a high level of circulating immune complexes). Most changes were not associated with an active replication of HCV but reliably differed from the indices of the healthy individuals. The obtained data permit to hypothesize that in the chronic course of HCV infection immunopathogenesis does not depend on replication of the virus in the blood, which in confirmed by a similar degree of changes in the groups of patients who had both positive and negative results of detecting HCV RNA.