Recent advances in molecular medicine have focused attention on cytolcines
in the machinery of inflammation and immune response. Tumor necrosis
factor (TNF-a) is a cytolcine produced primarily by activated monocytes
and lymphocytes, that posses pleiotropic properties. TNF-a has
been involved in the pathogenesis of diversity of liver diseases including
viral hepatitis. The aim of this study was to investigate a group of patients
with histologically - documented chronic viral hepatitis for the level
of serum TNF-a with particular attention to its correlation with disease activity.
Thirty patients with biopsy-proven chronic Viral hepatitis and ten
healthy controls were studied in this work. Cases included 25 males and
5 females with an age range of 23 to 67 years. Controls included 8 males
and 2 females with an age range of 25 to 60 years. Cases were classified
into three groups : Group I consisted of 6 cases with chronic hepaitis B.
Group II 14 cases with chronic hepatitis C and Group 111 10 cases with evidence
of combined B and C viral infections. Results revealed that serum
TNF-a levels were signcantly increased among patients with chronic viral
hepatitis compared to controls. TNF-a significantly correlated with the
severity of the .activity of viral infection as gauged by the histological activity
index (HAD. There was, however, no statistically significant difference
between the three groups of cases and each other. It was concluded
that TNF-a is a better measure of disease activity than conventional bio-chemical liver function tests. Moreover, monitoring of TNF-a along with
ALT during treatment might provide more precise information of effectiveness
of therapy. |
