M. Malaguarnera et al., SERUM INTERLEUKIN-6 CONCENTRATIONS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C PATIENTS BEFORE AND AFTER INTERFERON-ALPHA TREATMENT, International journal of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, 35(9), 1997, pp. 385-388
IFN-alpha represents the treatment of choice in chronic hepatitis C. I
t acts directly on the cells infected by the virus and indirectly via
the cytokine network. We studied the behavior of interleukin 6 (IL-6),
a cytokine that is particularly active in the liver and considered an
index of liver inflammation and necrosis, in order to evaluate the re
lationships between IFN-alpha administration and serum levels of this
cytokine. Our study series was composed of 60 patients (32 males, 28 f
emales, mean age 53.03 +/- 12.7 years) affected by chronic hepatitis C
and 24 healthy controls (14 males, 13 females, mean age 45.8 +/- 5.9
years). We determined serum IL-6 concentrations before and after 3,000
,000 IU of IFN-alpha t.i.w./6 months in the former and compared them w
ith levels observed in the controls. Pre- and post-treatment serum IL-
6 levels were higher in chronic hepatitis patients and correlated with
HAI score and HCV RNA prior to treatment. Diversely, this correlation
was less significant after completion of the treatment. Furthermore,
IL-6 concentrations depended on the type of response to treatment, i.e
. they decreased in complete responders, while increased in partial an
d non-responders. Our data indicate that IL-6 concentrations, before t
reatment, are expression of viral-induced inflammation and that, after
treatment, may be increased by the action of IFN-alpha treatment.