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©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2016; 22(4): 1393-1404
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1393
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1393
Analysis of peripheral blood dendritic cells as a non-invasive tool in the follow-up of patients with chronic hepatitis C
Andrea Crosignani, Department of Internal Medicine, A.O. San Paolo, University of Milan, 20142 Milan, Italy
Antonio Riva, Institute of Hepatology, Foundation for Liver Research, London WC1E 6HX, United Kingdom
Silvia Della Bella, Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, 20089 Rozzano (Milan), Italy
Silvia Della Bella, Lab of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, 20089 Rozzano (Milan), Italy
Author contributions: Crosignani A and Riva A equally contributed to this manuscript; Crosignani A, Riva A and Della Bella S performed the literature research and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Della Bella S designed and revised the entire document.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Silvia Della Bella, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, and Lab of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, via Manzoni 113, 20089 Rozzano (MI), Italy. silvia.dellabella@unimi.it
Telephone: +39-2-82245144 Fax: +39-2-82245101
Received: May 11, 2015
Peer-review started: May 12, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 11, 2015
Accepted: November 13, 2015
Article in press: November 13, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Peer-review started: May 12, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 11, 2015
Accepted: November 13, 2015
Article in press: November 13, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells that play a primary role in the activation and coordination of primary immune responses. In this review we will illustrate and discuss the emerging understanding of DC impairment occurring in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the impact of therapy on DCs. Particular attention will be paid to HCV-induced alterations of DCs in the peripheral blood, as the non-invasive accessibility of these cells renders their analysis a convenient procedure that can be serially repeated in patient follow-up.