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World J Hepatol. Jun 18, 2015; 7(11): 1572-1580
Published online Jun 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i11.1572
Th1/Th2 cytokines and their genotypes as predictors of hepatitis B virus related hepatocellular carcinoma
Roli Saxena, Jyotdeep Kaur
Roli Saxena, Jyotdeep Kaur, Department of Biochemistry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
Author contributions: Kaur J designed research; Saxena R performed research; Kaur J contributed new reagents or analytic tools; Kaur J analyzed data; Saxena R wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest: No competing financial interests exist.
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: Dr. Jyotdeep Kaur, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Sector 12, Chandigarh 160012, India. jyotdeep2001@yahoo.co.in
Telephone: +91-172-2755181 Fax: +91-172-2744401
Received: September 17, 2014
Peer-review started: September 20, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: January 30, 2015
Accepted: March 30, 2015
Article in press: April 2, 2015
Published online: June 18, 2015
Processing time: 271 Days and 14.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the prime manifestation of primary liver cancer. Besides, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection accounts for nearly 50% of hepatocellular carcinoma cases worldwide. The injuries afflicted by HBV infection are predominantly immune-mediated. Th1/Th2 cytokines play a significant role in modulating almost all phases of the host immune response. Moreover, cytokine production and response is genetically controlled. Hence, the population-based variability in patterns of cytokine polymorphisms, might alter the ability of an individual to mount an appropriate immune response, thus causing a differential effect on the progression of the HBV disease pathogenesis.