The aim of this study was to determine the association between pretreatment intrahepatic mRNA levels of interferon receptor and interferon-stimulated genes and response to interferon therapy for genotype 1b chronic hepatitis C.
Intrahepatic mRNA levels of type-I interferon (IFN) receptor genes have been shown to correlate with the clinical efficacy of IFN therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Recently, co-infection by serologically-silent hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been assumed to be associated with the poor IFN response in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the co-infection of serologically-silent HBV and type-I IFN receptor gene expression in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C. The intrahepatic mRNA levels of IFNAR2, one of the two subunits of the type-I IFN receptor, were quantified and compared with both the prevalence of HBV DNA and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype in 45 patients with chronic hepatitis C, who were negative for hepatitis B surface antigen.