Rădulescu Mihaela Andreea 1, 2, Popescu Cristina 1, 2, Aramă Victoria 1, 2, Streinu-Cercel A. 1, 2
1 Prof. Dr. Matei Bals National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Bucharest
2 Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important problem of public health in our country and worldwide. HCV infection leads to cirrhosis and in some cases to hepatocarcinoma. In the past years, HCV was associated with metabolic disturbances, including hepatic steatosis, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, on the other hand these metabolic factors were identified to accelerate progression to cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma. Also in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), the endocrine activity of fat tissue is disturbed and a large number of adipokines seem to be involved in the pathogenic mechanisms of CHC progression, including liver inflammation, steatosis, fibrogenesis, insulin resistance and angiogenesis. In this paper we summarize published data regarding the role of two novel adipokines: Visfatin and Chemerin in the pathogenesis of HCV infection.