Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is often clinically silent in haemodialysed (HD) patients and their immune response may modulate liver damage in HCV infection. IL-10 and TGF-beta1 could play a role in this setting as, IL-10 down-regulates hepatic fibrosis, while TGF-beta1 is a pro-fibrotic cytokine.
Gastroenterology Section, Department of Surgical and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padova, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padova, Italy. burra@unipd.it