Serum Interferon –gamma inducible protein – 10: a possible player in progression of Hepatitis B Virus related chronic liver diseases.

Objective: To assess relation of serum Interferon gamma inducible protein - 10 (IP-10) to clinical, biochemical and histopathological characteristics in different clinical stages of HBV. Methods: The 116 HBsAg positive patients (24; carriers, 81; chronic hepatitis and 11; cirrhosis) were tested for HBV Quantitative PCR and genotyping and IP-10 serum levels. Results; By ROC curve, optimal IP-10 level for potential prediction of cirrhosis development within chronic hepatitis patients was 343.5 ng/ mL The area under curve was 0.862 (95% CI :, P:<0.001). According to this level, patients were sub-classified into 2 groups. Most of patients in the above cutoff value (>343.5 pg/ml) group (n=32) were genotype D (84.4%), revealing significant higher viral load (P:<0.001), ALT (P: 0.002), and more severe histopathologic inflammatory and fibrotic (P: <0.0001 for each) patterns. Also, these patients were more prone to progress to liver cirrhosis [RR= 2.8, 95% CI (1.7 -4.7)]. Spearman's correlation revealed significant positive correlations between serum IP-10 levels and patient's age (P: 0.009), ALT (P: 0.005), viral load, and stages of fibrosis and inflammation (P: <0.0001 for each). By linear regression analysis, ALT, viral load, hepatic inflammation and IP-10 were independent predictors of hepatic fibrosis (P: 0.02, 0.007, <0.0001, <0.0001 respectively). The multivariate analysis showed IP-10 as an independent predictor for both hepatic inflammation and fibrosis (P: <0.0001 for each). Conclusions; The observed strong association between IP-10 levels and HBV viral loads points to IP-10 role in recruitment of immune cells to infected liver and induction of cellular immunity against HBV infections.