慢性丙型肝炎患者肝脏中8-硝基鸟嘌呤的蓄积

摘要

Background/Aims: Nucleic acid damage by reactive nitrogen and oxygen species may contribute to inflammation- related carcinogenesis. To investigate the extent of nucleic acid damage in hepatitis C virus infection and its change after interferon treatment, we measured 8- nitrogua- nine and 8- hydroxy- 2’ - deoxyguanosine (8- OHdG) in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) before and after interferon therapy. Methods: Hepatic accumulation of 8- nitroguanine and 8- OHdG was immunohistochemically evaluated in 20 CHC patients and 7 control patients with non- alcoholic fatty liver. Results: Immunoreactivities of 8- nitroguanine and 8- OHdG were strongly detected in the liver from patients with CHC, but not in control livers. 8- Nitroguanine accumulation was found not only in infiltrating inflammatory cells, but also hepatocytes particularly in the periportal area. The accumulation of 8- nitroguanine and 8- OHdG increased with inflammatory grade (8- nitroguanine; P=0.0019, 8- OHdG; P=0.0009). In the sustained virological responder group after interferon therapy, 8- nitroguanine and 8- OHdG accumulationweremarkedly decreased in the liver (8- nitroguanine; P=0.018, 8- OHdG; P=0.018). Conclusions: In this study,we demonstrated for the first time that 8- nitroguanine accumulated in the liver of patients with CHC. 8- Nitroguanine is a useful biomarker to evaluate the severity of HCV- induced chronic inflammation in relation to hepatocellular carcinoma.