Occupational exposure to hepatitis C virus: early T-cell responses in the absence of seroconversion in a longitudinal cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

T-cell responses have been described in seronegative patients who test negative for hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA despite frequent HCV exposure. However, the cross-sectional design of those studies did not clarify whether T cells were indeed induced by low-level HCV exposure without seroconversion or whether they resulted from regular acute infection with subsequent antibody loss.

Methods

Over a 10-year period, our longitudinal study recruited 72 healthcare workers with documented HCV exposure. We studied viremia and antibody and T-cell responses longitudinally for 6 months.

Results

All healthcare workers remained negative for HCV RNA and antibodies. However, 48% developed proliferative T-cell response and 42% developed responses in interferon-gamma enzyme-li

SUBMITTER: Heller T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3749009 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature