Apoptosis markers related to pathogenesis of pediatric chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

VALVA P; DE MATTEO E; GALOPPO MC; GISMONDI MI; PRECIADO MV

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY

Wiley InterScience

Año: 2010 vol. 82 p. 949 - 957

0146-6615

Apoptosis involvement in liver damage related to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infection has been suggested. Although liver biopsy represents the gold standard for evaluating disease severity, non-invasive tests are a growing medical need. The aim of this study was to detect apoptosis markers in liver and serum from pediatric HCV infected patients and to assess its utility to predict liver damage progression. Twenty three patients were included. Liver biopsies were used for histological analysis as well as for immunodetection of a viral protein (NS3) and apoptosis markers (activated caspase-3 [casp-3a], caspase-generated CK-18 fragment [M30] and TUNEL). M30 was quantified in paired serum and biopsy samples. NS3 correlated both with casp-3a (r =0.83, p