CD4+ T CELL IMMUNITY IN MOTHER-CHILD PAIRS INFECTED WITH HEPATITIS C VIRUS

这个子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和调查员(PI)可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可能会出现在其他CRISE条目中。列出的机构是针对中心的，而不一定是针对调查员的机构。我们推测，与成人相比，围产期感染丙型肝炎病毒的儿童良性肝病的病程可能与这些儿童的CD4+T细胞对丙型肝炎病毒抗原的反应性提高有关。此外，我们还将检验这样一种假设，即一种促进细胞免疫反应的调节性细胞因子在儿童的血液循环中比他们的母亲高。由于母子对在基因上相似，并且感染了相同的丙型肝炎病毒株，母亲是孩子们理想的成人对照组。研究人群将是20对同时感染丙型肝炎的母婴和10对未感染丙型肝炎的对照母婴。受试者，感染对和对照，将是在CHRMC胃肠病诊所就诊的患者和他们的母亲，作为就诊的一部分，他们将进行血液检查。儿童受试者必须年满一岁，体重超过7公斤。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. We hypothesize that the benign liver disease course in children who acquire HCV infection perinatally may be related to improved CD4+T cell responsiveness to HCV antigens in the these children compared to adults. In addition, we will test the hypothesis that a regulatory cytokine, which promotes the cellular immune response, is elevated in the circulation of children compared with their mothers. Since mother-child pairs are genetically similar and infected by the same HCV strain, the mothers serve as an ideal adult comparison group to the children. The research population will be twenty mother-child pairs who both are infected with Hepatitis C and 10 control mother-child pairs who are not infected. The subjects, infected pairs and control, will be patients and their mothers who are attending clinic visits in the CHRMC Gastroenterology Clinic and who will be having blood work done as part of these visits. The child subjects must be a t least one year of age and weigh more than 7 kg.