CS5-5 Characterization of the interferon lambda (IL28/29) antiviral pathway in cell culture, human and chimpanzee models of HCV infection

Liver transplantation and hepatitis C: Will understanding the interleukin-28B polymorphisms improve outcomes?

“…In contrast to early studies in which the focus was the production of IL‐28B by peripheral blood mononuclear cells,1, 3 these findings imply that IL‐28B is produced by hepatic parenchymal cells in HCV‐infected patients because the patients in these studies were treated well after significant leukocyte chimerism would likely have been resolved. The potential for hepatocytes to produce IFN‐λ is perhaps unsurprising because the earliest investigations of this cytokine family demonstrated messenger RNA to be present within the liver23; moreover, recent data have suggested that both hepatoma cell lines and primary hepatocytes are capable of producing IFN‐λ in vitro 24. Interestingly, both Fukuhara et al20 and Charlton et al21 demonstrated an intermediate effect on the SVR rate when the donor or the recipient (but not both) expressed the favorable allele; this indicates the potential for IL‐28B expression by innate immune cells and hepatocytes in concert to be involved in HCV clearance.…”