The association gene’s TNFα G(308) with quantity of TNFα and degree of liver’s fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

The data on the polymorphism of cytokine genes associated with individual reactivity on the effects of hepatitis C virus, predict the rate of progression of liver fibrosis. The purpose of this work is study the association of the polymorphic marker G308A of the TNFα gene with its quantitative content and degree of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. A total of 100 patients with CSF were examined. The polymorphism of G308A gene’s TNFα was studied by amplification of the corresponding genome zones by PCR. The assessment of the degree of fibrosis was performed using the non-invasive Fibrotest method. The study of the quantity of TNFα cytokine in serum of patients was performed by ELISA. The distribution of genotypes on the investigated polymorphic loci was verified using Pearson's χ2 criterion. The frequencies of alleles and genotypes in the groups were compared using Pearson's χ2 criterion with Yates correction for continuity with the number of degrees of freedom 1. In order to detect the correlation dependencies between the individual parameters, the Spearman correlation coefficient was applied. It was found that a smaller degree of fibrosis was observed in carriers of the GG TNFα genotype, and a greater degree of fibrosis in the carriers of the genotype AA TNFα (moderate feedback between the degree of fibrosis and the genotypes of TNFα). The higher content of TNFα is noted in the carriers of the AA genotype TNFα, the lower content of TNFα - in the carriers of the GG TNFα genotype (moderate feedback between the TNFα genotypes and the TNFα content). It has been established that a higher TNFα content is observed in patients with F1-F0 fibrosis, a lower TNFα content in patients with F2-F3 fibrosis (a strong correlation between the degree of fibrosis and the amount of TNFα cytokine). It is assumed that the production of the cytokine is determined at the genetic level, and the severity of changes in the cytokine profile in chronic hepatitis C affects the course of the pathological process. An increase in the TNFα content in chronic hepatitis C may be a marker for significant morphological changes in the hepatic tissue and high activity of the inflammatory process.