Lymph node enlargement within the hepatoduodenal ligament in patients with chronic hepatitis C reflects the immunological cellular response of the host

Enlarged lymph nodes in porta hepatis: Sonographic sign of chronic hepatitis B and C infections

“…For instance, the immunological cellular response that has been correlated with nodal enlargement in chronic HCV infection may indicate reactive lymphocyte proliferation and clonal expansion in the associated lymph nodes. 31 The sizes of the noticeable lymph nodes seemed to be histologically and serologically correlated with the severity of hepatic inflammation. Subjects with HCV infection and normal ALT values were followed up, and the results showed that those with increases in ALT levels had lymph nodes larger than those of subjects with persistently normal ALT levels.…”

Coligation of the Hepatitis C Virus Receptor CD81 with CD28 Primes Naive T Lymphocytes to Acquire Type 2 Effector Function

“…Thus, it seems that the ligands required for activation to occur, namely CD80, CD86, and HCV-E2, are present in sufficient amounts only in the liver and, possibly, its draining secondary lymphoid organs. Interestingly, lymphadenopathy of perihepatic lymph nodes is commonly detected in HCV-infected individuals (32,77,78). This symptom is considered to be highly predictive of HCV infection when detected by chance (77,78), and its magnitude directly correlates with the ϩ T cells were harvested at t ϭ 0 (t0) or after 72 h of culture under T CO , Th2, Th1, and nonpolarizing conditions.…”

“…In fact, in vitro studies show that binding of CD81, in ways that mimic the interaction with HCV-E2, can induce Ag-independent proliferation of ␥␦ T cells (28) or naive B cells (29) and act as a costimulus lowering the threshold for TCRmediated activation of ␣␤ T cells (30,31). Intriguingly, HCVinfected individuals display symptoms that reflect extensive localized lymphocyte proliferation such as viremia-dependent perihepatic lymphadenopathy (32) and liver infiltration of a large number of activated non HCV-specific T cells (33,34).…”

Clinical Significance of Perihepatic Lymphadenopathy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

“…Higher HCV viral loads and HCV core antigen levels were found to be associated with higher perihepatic lymph node volumes in previous studies [13,14,31]. In our analysis, we were able to look at viral loads as a categorical variable, and we were unable to demonstrate an association between viral loads and PLNE.…”