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Abstract
During the early phases of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, natural killer (NK) cells activation appears to be critical to the innate (non- specific) immune responses that have the potential of clearing the infection. Impaired activity of NK cells has been proposed as a mechanism contributing to viral persistence and chronic infection in HCV infection .We aimed to assess the impact of HCV infections on NK cells regarding frequency, and subset distribution. Peripheral blood (PB) NK cells population of individuals were divided into the following groups: normal individuals :20 and 89 patients at different stages of HCV:37 chronic HCV,28 cirrhotic HCV, and 24 with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) .The phenotype and frequency of NK cells were characterized by flow cytometry in the different stages in comparison to normal. The potential associations between the frequency of NK cell subsets and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), as indicators of liver function, were analyzed. The correlation between the phenotype of NK subsets and the various stages was assayed. Number of total NK cells was significantly reduced and a striking shift in NK subsets, with a marked decrease in the CD56dim cell fraction compared to CD56bright cells was identified