The Relationship Between Serum IL-17 Level and Viral Load in Chronic Hepatitis B

Chronic hepatitis B is a major public health problem, especially, in developing countries. T helper 17 (th17) cells produce cytokines that have been shown to mediate host defensive mechanisms in various infections, but their role in HBV infection has not been well characterized. The aim of this study is to determine the level of interleukin 17 (IL-17) in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection and assess the relationship between different titers of viremia with serum IL-17 and liver enzyme levels. Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection (HBV) who were referred to Hepatitis Clinic at Boo-Ali Hospital, Zahedan, Iran, were divided into three major groups according to their viral load and subsequently IL-17 and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were measured. The data analysis was examined by Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. In this cross-sectional study, 143 untreated patients with chronic hepatitis B infection were divided into three main groups. Seventy-four patients with HBV DNA less than 2000 IU/mL; 53 patients with HBV DNA between 2000 - 107 IU/mL and 16 patients with HBV DNA more than 107 IU/mL. The mean of serum IL-17 levels in these three groups was 30.66, 26.87 and 24.42 pg/mL, respectively. There was no significant difference between different levels of HBV DNA with the serum level of IL-17 and ALT (P > 0.05). Although IL-17 may contribute to disease progression and liver injury in chronic HBV infected patients, the association between serum levels of IL-17 with viral load was not detected in this study.