THE POLYMORPHISM OF TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR ALPHA AND HEPATITIS C VIRUS RELATED HCC

Background: Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary malignant liver tumor. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carci?noma throughout the world. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health burden in Egypt. Proinflammatory cytokines as TNF-α were reported to be elevated among hepatitis patients. TNF-α has been implicated in liver development and regeneration but may also contribute to the pathogenesis of liver-related diseases such as cirhossis, fibrosis, and cancer. Aim of the work: The aim of the present study is to determine the genotypes and alleles fre-quencies of TNF-α 308 G/A polymorphisms among some of the Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection and healthy individuals to assess whether these genes are involved in chronic HCV susceptibility and/or HCC development. Material and methods: A total of 55 HCV, 60 HCC and 50 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study for evaluation. Genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood and genotyping was performed using Real Time polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) methodology. Results: G/A, G/G and A/A frequencies in HCV patients were 20.0%%, 63.6%%, 16.4%% respectively, furthermore the frequencies were 10.0%, 90.0%, 00.0% in HCC patients and 8.0%, 88.0%, 4.0% in the control group respectively. The frequencies of G and A alleles in HCV patients were 73.7%, 26.3% and in HCC patients were 95.0%, 5.0% while in the control group the frequencies were 92.0%, 8.0% respectively. There was A significant difference between the studied groups regarding G/A, G/G, A/A frequencies. There was a significant difference in allele frequencies between patients with HCV and control groups (p=0.01). Moreover, there was highly significant difference in allele frequencies between HCC and HCV groups (p=0.001). While there was no significant difference in allele frequencies between HCC and control groups (p=0.2). Conclusion: The present study showed that TNF-α 308 G /A polymorphism was associated with increased HCC risk in Egyptian HCV infected population.