HCV F protein triggers IL-10 production in peripheral blood monouclear cells

摘要

Researchers reported a novel F protein, an alternative reading frame protein expressed from the HCV core coding sequence. F protein can induce humoral immunity in HCV infected patients. In this study, we aim to investigate whether this protein induce specific cellular immunity responses. Monocytes were separated from peripheral blood of healthy and HCV infected individual by centrifugation on FicollHypaque density gradient. PBMCs were stimulated with HCV F protein. Supernatants were collected and analyzed by ELISA. HCV F protein induced PBMCs from HCV patients only to produce IL-10, but not TNF-α cytokine. However, HCV F protein could trigger IL-10 and TNF-α cytokines in PBMCs from healthy donors.