Hepatitis C Virus Rna In The Bone Marrow Of Patients With Mixed Cryoglobulinemia And In Subjects With Noncryoglobulinemic Chronic Hepatitis Typec

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with most mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) syndromes. In this study, HCV RNA was detected in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 11 (73.3%) of 15 patients with MC and in 5 (71.4%) of 7 noncryoglobulinemic patients with chronic hepatitis type C. All patients with cryoglobulinemia and 3 (42.8%) of the 7 without cryoglobulinemia (P < .05) had HCV RNA in bone marrow cells. Subjects in both groups with HCV-positive bone marrow also had HCV RNA in serum. The majority of patients with MC syndromes were infected with HCV subtypes 1b and 2a. Two patients with MC had different genotypes in serum and cells. Further studies are needed to determine which bone marrow cell population is preferentially infected by HCV and to determine if this phenomenon is involved in inducing the production of cryoglobulins.

Does the hepatitis C virus replicate in cells of the hematopoietic lineage?

“…HCV RNA of both strands and HCV antigens have been detected by nonradioisotopic in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence, respectively, in a low percentage of bone marrow mononuclear cells derived from 54% of patients with chronic hepatitis C. 36 RT-PCR-based studies seemed to confirm the presence of HCV replicative forms in the bone marrow, especially in the presence of cryoglobulinemia. 38,39 However, using a more strand-specific RT-PCR, Lerat et al 30 questioned these findings, as did others looking for HCV-negative strand in bone marrow and other extrahepatic organs (PBMC, spleen, muscle, lymph nodes, pancreas, and kidney) taken from a chimpanzee at autopsy. 26 Data which suggest that the presence of HCV in bone marrow preparations should also be interpreted with caution owing to the varying degree of contamination with peripheral blood cells.…”

Hepatitis C virus infection and type II cryoglobulinemia: An immunological perspective

“…globulinemia secondary to HCV infection. 26 HCV has been In the later study, the antibody probes used to detect HCV proteins in glomerular deposits were not F(ab)2 prepara-shown in the bone marrow in some of these cases using AID Hepa 0059 / 5p2a$$1161 11-11-97 15:33:01 hepa WBS: Hepatology 27 although it could not be determined whether marrow elements were specifically infected. In preliminary studies that strongly express bcl-2 and have only weak Ki-67 expression, 23 consistent with long-lived, nonmalignant, self-repliusing ISH in similar patients, mononuclear and occasional megakaryocytes were positive for HCV.…”

Hepatitis C virus-related lymphoproliferative disorders: An overview

“…These studies were able to better characterize this viral prerogative by the use of more specific methods or study models [78][79][80][81][82][83][84] . However, Zignego AL et al Extrahepatic manifestations of HCV it was impossible to obtain a clear scientific confirmation of a direct link between HCV lymphotropism and LPD pathogenesis, mostly due to difficulties in the identification of valuable scientific models, in spite of the demonstration of a stronger involvement of the lymphatic system in HCV infection in patients with MC than in HCV patients without [5,85] , and, more recently, the favoring effect of B-cell infection in promoting lymphatic cell proliferation [86] . By contrast, several interesting data suggest a role only indirectly played by HCV infection in LPD pathogenesis through the host's immune response [30,[87][88][89][90] .…”