In coculture experiments of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells with peripheral blood mononuclear cells, pre-treatment of the HCC cells with IL27 resulted in lowered IL2 production by anti-CD3/-CD28 activated T-lymphocytes.
In the liver, IL27 expression was observed to be upregulated in patients with hepatitis B, and sera of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients contain significantly elevated levels of IL27 compared to healthy controls or patients with hepatitis and/or liver cirrhosis.
In this study, we investigated the effects of IL-27 and IFN-λ1 on the replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV), a major pathogen associated with a high risk for cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Gankyrin was originally purified and characterized as the p28 component of the 26S proteasome, and later identified as an oncogenic protein in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC).
IL-27 was also detected at higher levels in patients with liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma than those with acute hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis B (P<0.05).