Effect of vitamin D supplementation on pegylated interferon/ribavirin therapy for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b: a randomized controlled trial

Chronic HCV-infected patients tend to have vitamin D deficiency, suggesting that vitamin D supplementation may enhance the efficacy of treatment with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV). We therefore assessed the effects of vitamin D supplementation on viral response to PEG-IFN/RBV. Eighty-four patients with HCV genotype 1b were randomized, 42 to oral vitamin D supplementation (1000 IU/day) and 42 to nonsupplementation (control), from week 8 to the end of PEG-IFN/RBV therapy. The primary end point was undetectable HCV RNA at week 24 (viral response [VR]). VR rate at week 24 was significantly higher in the vitamin D than in the control group (78.6% vs 54.8% P = 0.037). Adverse events were similar in both groups. When patients were subdivided by IL28B SNP rs8099917 genotype, those with the TT genotype group showed a significantly higher VR rate at week 24 with than without vitamin D supplementation (86.2% vs 63.3% vs P = 0.044). Although patients with the TG/GG genotype, who were relatively resistant to PEG-IFN treatment, had similar VR rates at week 24 with and without vitamin D supplementation, the decline in viral load from week 8 to week 24 was significantly greater with than without vitamin D supplementation. Multivariate analysis showed that rs8099917 genotype and vitamin D supplementation contributed significantly to VR at week 24. SVR rates were similar in the vitamin D and control groups [64.3% (27/42) vs 50% (21/42), P = 0.19]. Vitamin D supplementation may enhance the effects of PEG-IFN/RBV in HCV genotype 1b-infected patients.

Immune-mediated cholangiohepatitis in neonatally thymectomized mice: the role of T cells and analysis of T-cell receptor Vbeta usage

We have previously reported the induction of immune-mediated cholangiohepatitis following injection of a hybrid recombinant proteins containing the E2 of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDC-E2) and the branched-chain keto-acid dehydrogenase (BCOADC-E2) to neonatally thymectomized (Tx) A/J mice. Further, we demonstrated that intrahepatic infiltrating mononuclear cells could transfer pathology to other Tx mice. To further our observations, we examined intrahepatic infiltrating mononuclear cells by flow cytometry and used cell transfer experiments to identify the phenotype involved. Interestingly, following immunization of neonatally Tx A/J mice and immunization with the bihybrid molecule, the number of CD3+infiltrating mononuclear cells were significantly higher (77.8%) compared with the control group. There was a small although not significant increase among intrahepatic infiltrating mononuclear cells and splenic cells of Vbeta 5.1,5.2+, Vbeta7+and Vbeta17+. In addition, Vbeta14+cells accounted for 20.4% of the infiltrating T-cells (P<0.01 vs. the control group). In further experiments, CD3+, CD4+or CD8+cells were isolated and removed from intrahepatic infiltrating mononuclear cells and subpopulations of mononuclear cells transferred to Tx mice. Both CD3+CD4+cells and CD3+CD8+cells are required for development of the lesion, and the damage is mediated by CD3+Vbeta14+cells.