B-cells and mixed cryoglobulinemia

Hepatitis C virus and autoimmunity

“…The infected extrahepatic tissues, especially circulating blood cells, might act as a reservoir for HCV and play a role in both HCV persistence and reactivation of infection [13]. The specific tropism of HCV for circulating blood cells, in particular lymphotropism, provides a link between HCV and the development of autoimmune and neoplastic haematological processes [14].…”

“…Hence, it has been speculated that an initial polyclonal lymphoproliferation may result in the emergence of a clone protected from apoptosis. A combination of genetic factors, environmental factors and HCV itself [13] results in additional mutational events with activation of oncogenes (e.g. myc oncogenes) resulting in NHL [25][26][27].…”

Mixed cryoglobulinemia

“…The prevalence of MC presents great geographic heterogeneity; the disease is more common in Southern Europe than in Northern Europe or Northern America [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. It is considered to be a rare disorder, however, yet there are no adequate epidemiological studies regarding its overall prevalence.…”

“…This is an in vitro phenomenon ( Fig. 1), the actual mechanism(s) of cryoprecipitation remains obscure, it could be secondary to intrinsic characteristics of both mono-and polyclonal immunoglobulin (Ig) components, it can be caused as well by the interaction among single components of the cryoprecipitate [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…Type I cryoglobulinemia is almost invariably associated with well-known hematological disorders and is frequently asymptomatic per se; similarly, circulating mixed cryoglobulins are commonly detected in a great number of infectious or systemic disorders [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. On the contrary, 'essential' MC represents a distinct disorder [3][4][5][6], which can be classified among systemic vasculitides [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”