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©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Gut immune response in the presence of hepatitis C virus infection
Helal F Hetta, Minesh J Mehta, Mohamed Tarek M Shata, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Digestive Diseases, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, United States
Helal F Hetta, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this paper.
Supported by Egyptian Government Scholarship for Helal Hetta; and Merck Investigator Initiated Studies (IIS) IISP, No. 40458 (Shata)
Correspondence to: Mohamed Tarek M Shata, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Digestive Diseases, University of Cincinnati, 231 Albert B. Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267, United States. mohamed.shata@uc.edu
Telephone: +1-513-5586110 Fax: +1-513-5581744
Received: April 2, 2014
Revised: May 22, 2014
Accepted: June 20, 2014
Published online: July 27, 2014
Processing time: 116 Days and 7.5 Hours
Revised: May 22, 2014
Accepted: June 20, 2014
Published online: July 27, 2014
Processing time: 116 Days and 7.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a global worldwide health problem with approximately 200 million people worldwide infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). It is also a major cause of chronic liver infection that often leads to chronic hepatitis which may progress to cirrhosis, fibrosis and finally hepatocellular carcinoma. In CHC, immune responses play an important role in HCV pathogenesis and responses to therapy. Intra-hepatic immune responses to HCV are highly regulated. There is a clear relationship between hepatic immune responses and mucosal immune response in the gut. Additionally, genetic immunological markers have been proposed to predict response to HCV treatment, and outcome of infection.