A comparative study of serum lipid contents in pre and post IFN-alpha treated acute hepatitis C patients

BACKGROUND: To study the effect of Interferon (INF) alpha-2b therapy on the serum lipids and fatty acid (FA) level in pre and post treated hepatitis C (HCV) patients. METHODS: Fifty samples were collected from pre and post treated patients along with age and gender matched controls. After separating serum, lipid contents were analyzed by microlab and gas chromatography. RESULTS: The hepatitis C infection results in hypolipidemia with reduced level of triglyceride (113 mg/dl), high density lipoprotein (37.1 mg/dl), low density lipoprotein (74.3 mg/dl), cholesterol (149.9 mg/dl) that increase the infection resolution and after the IFN treatment, the lipid profile of the patients were increased. The myristic (2.8 g/100 g) and palmitic acids (26.6 g/100 g) were significantly higher while linoleic acid (20.94 g/100 g) was significantly lower in HCV patients. The higher oleic: stearic (1.4) and palmitoleic: palmitic acid (0.2) ratios were detected in HCV patients, showing enhanced stearoyl-CoA desaturase activity. The levels of serum saturated (44.9 g/100 g) and monounsaturated FA’s (26.98 g/100 g) were higher while polyunsaturated FA’s (25.9 g/100 g) were found lower in HCV patients in comparison of controls (40.1; 25.01; 33.44 g/100 g respectively). An inverse correlation was found HCV RNA viral load and PUFA (R(2) = 0.4555). Elevated levels of serum saturated free FA (45.7 g/100 g) in HCV patients indicates stimulated lipoapoptosis. CONCLUSION: The present study conclude that serum PUFA level was lower in HCV patients, hence PUFA may provide synergistic antiviral effects when given as a food supplement during the INF based anti- HCV therapy.