HFE and alpha-1 antitrypsin polymorphisms were characterized in 200 Egyptian patients with HCV infection (100 patients complicated with cirrhosis, 100 patients with HCC) and 100 healthy subjects who had no history of any malignancy.
Studies have shown that AIAT heterozygosity can be considered a modifier for hepatitis C virus, end-stage liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Each patient was assessed with special attention to risk factors for hepatitis C infection, average daily alcohol consumption and analysis of plasma levels of alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1AT) and alpha1-antichymotrypsin (alpha1ACT).
These conditions appeared to have synergistic effects, with the chronic viral hepatitis unmasking the alpha1AT deficiency, and the alpha1AT deficiency (and possibly the heterozygosity for HHC), exacerbating the course of the hepatitis C.
alpha 1-antitrypsin does not seem to play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic liver disease and hepatitis C virus infection in patients with porphyria cutanea tarda.