Molecular study of hepcidin in chronic hepatitis C genotype 4 patients treated with pegylated interferon/ribavirin with vitamin D

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Abstract

Introduction
We aimed to find out an association between hepcidin and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients treated with pegylated interferon-α/ribavirin (PEG-IFN-α/RBV) with vitamin D supplements.
Patients and methods
Seventy-three chronic HCV patients who were enrolled in the study received the standard of care therapy consisting of PEG-IFN/RBV+vitamin D. All patients were subjected to vitamin D and hepcidin level assessment and HCV RNA detection using quantitative reverse transcription PCR for 48 weeks of treatment.
Results
We classified our patients retrograde into responders and nonresponders to PEG-IFN-α2b+RBV therapy. Among responders, the mean level of vitamin D after therapy was 65.48 versus 9.30 ng/ml among nonresponders. Among responders, serum hepcidin, serum ferritin, and hepcidin/ferritin ratio were significantly elevated (P<0.001, <0.001, and P=0.036, respectively) after vitamin D therapy compared with nonresponders (P=0.06, 0.76, and 0.428, respectively). There was a significant increase in hepcidin, ferritin, hepcidin/ferritin ratio in responders compared with nonresponders after treatment (P<0.001, <0.001, and P=0.05, respectively). There was a negative correlation between hepcidin and vitamin D in responders, with a statistically significant difference (r=−0.977 and P<0.001) compared with nonresponders (r=0.367 and P=0.046).
Conclusion
In naive patients infected with HCV genotype 4, treatment with interferon α2b and ribavirin and vitamin D significantly increased the rate of viral response. No correlation was found between hepcidin expression, hepcidin serum level, and vitamin D level before start of therapy.

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