VARIATIONS OF SERUM LEVELS OF ADIPONECTIN AND RESISTIN IN CHRONIC VIRAL HEPATITIS

Background and Aims: Several studies investigated the possible role of adipokines during chronic viral hepatitis, not producing defined results neither clearly establishing their behaviour in course of antiviral treatment. Our study evaluated blood concentrations of Adiponectin and Resistin in patients with Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC), B (CHB) and D (CHD) receiving antiviral treatment, at baseline and after therapy. Methods: We examined 122 subjects, divided into two groups: 64 patients with chronic HCV infection (38 males and 26 females, mean age 47,25 years) and 58 patients including 39 ones with chronic HBV infection (26 males and 13 females, mean age 48,46 years) and 19 ones with chronic HBV-HDV infection (15 males and 4 females, mean age 45,79 years ). Serum levels of Adiponectin and Resistin were assayed by ELISA. Results: In the group of CHC patients we observed a significant decrease in Resistin after therapy (p = 0.006), while not a significant increase in Adiponectin after treatment (p = 0.32). Evaluation of changes in Adiponectin and Resistin levels after antiviral treatment, both in responders and nonresponders, revealed not significant variations. In the group of HBV+ and HBV-HDV+ patients, we found a decrease in Resistin after therapy (p = 0.0016) and a not significant reduction in Adiponectin after treatment (p = 0.13). Furthermore, we noticed a significant reduction of Resistin (p = 0.006) in the sub-group of responders. Conclusions: Our data suggested the possible marker role of Adiponectin and Resistin in the inflammatory process in course of chronic viral hepatitis