Expression of Fas (CD95) and Bcl-2 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with chronic HCV and schistosomiasis

Abstract

Schistosomiasis Apoptosis Fas Bcl-2 a b s t r a c t A high incidence of viral persistence and progression to chronic hepatitis are characteristic features of HCV infection. The aim of this case control study was to investigate the expression of the apoptosis related proteins Fas (CD95) and Bcl-2 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with chronic HCV and schistosomiasis, and to evaluate their contribution in the development and maintenance of the different clinical forms of these diseases. The level of Fas and Bcl-2 expression in PBMCs was detected using flow cytometry in 85 cases in this study, including chronic HCV (40 patients) and schistosomiasis (25 patients) in addition to 20 healthy controls. Results showed that the increased apoptotic level correlated with increased Fas expression on the surface of PBMCs in chronic HCV patients (p ¼ 0.001) which did not show increased expression of the antiapoptotic factor Bcl-2 (p ¼ 0. 19). Apoptotic PBMCs in intestinal schistosomiasis patientsshowed increased expression of Fas (p ¼ 0.001) but again did not exhibit a difference in Bcl-2 expression (p ¼ 0.61) when compared to either hepatoplenic schistosomiasis or control patients. The Fas expression was highly significant in HCV > schistosomiasis > control (p < 0.002) while non-significant difference was found between the 3 groups as regards to Bcl-2 expression (p > 0.12). It was concluded that the detection of apoptosis of PBMCs in patients with chronic HCV was associated with increased expression of apoptotic markers in comparison with schistosomiasis patients, which may be an indicator of disease progression and severity. Modulation of this process may offer valuable methods of HCV therapy.

Naïve CD4+ T Cell Lymphopenia and Apoptosis in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection Is Driven by the CD31+ Subset and Is Partially Normalized in Direct-Acting Antiviral Treated Persons

“…Here, since 7AAD binds to intracytoplasmic double-stranded nucleic acid fragments in apoptotic cells, the observed enhanced Annexin+7AAD+ labeling of naïve CD4+ T cells (direct ex vivo) from HCV infected persons could be consistent with this mechanism. At the same time direct ex vivo analysis of BCL-2 expression within naïve CD4+ T cells was similar between untreated and treated HCV and control persons, consistent with prior studies in chronic HCV (31)(32)(33) and suggesting that alteration of this intrinsic anti-apoptotic mechanism is not likely operative here. In fact in vitro media cultured cell apoptosis (measure of intrinsic resistance to apoptosis) does not appear to remarkably differ between groups but as expected resistance is enhanced by IL-7 culture (34,35).…”

“…Lastly, the extrinsic apoptotic pathway via surface death receptors (including Fas receptor) may also contribute to naïve CD4+ T cell lymphopenia. HCV infection has been described to associate with greater Fas expression on peripheral bulk T cells, greater serum FasL levels, and apoptosis of bulk peripheral T cells (32,39,40). The liver may be one source of peripheral FasL since it is highly expressed within the liver immune cells in HCV infection (41).…”

Murine hepatocytes DNA changes as an assessment of the immunogenicity of potential anti-schistosomal vaccines experimentally

“…By using DNA extraction and gel electrophoresis, the degrees of hepatocyte DNA fragmentation (induced apoptosis) were classified according to the density of apoptotic bands into mild, moderate, dense and severe i.e. apoptosis was the reported face of hepatocyte DNA fragmentation (El-Bendarya et al 2014). So, the current results revealed that the best hepatocyte DNA protection with the least DNA fragmentation was obtained with the combined (SWAP ?…”

Hepatic Progenitor Cells and Cells Resistant to Apoptosis in Chronic HCV

“…This hypothesis was sourced to rationalize the high incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic HCV patients supported by the anti-apoptotic/oncogenic probability of bcl-2 [29]. El-Bendary et al had studied apoptosis in HCV infection associated with bilharziasis spotting light on the presence of apoptotic (fas) and antiapoptotic (Bcl2) markers [32]. In spite of being statistically insignificant Bcl2 was found to be lessened accompanying disease progression and severity in HCV patients.…”