en تخصصي Special پژوهشي Original article <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt line-height: 150%"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">Background and Aims:</span></b> <span style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">Natural killer T (NKT) cells have</span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">been suggested to play critical roles in a wide range</span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">of immune responses especially against hepatotropic pathogens such as hepatitis C virus (HCV). In&nbsp; the&nbsp; present&nbsp; study,&nbsp; we&nbsp; investigated&nbsp; the&nbsp; status&nbsp; of&nbsp; NKT&nbsp; cells&nbsp; by producing interleukin-17 cytokine in&nbsp; peripheral&nbsp; blood.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">&nbsp; </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt line-height: 150%"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">Patients and Methods:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">As case-control study, 15 patients with chronic HCV infection and healthy individuals were enrolled in the study. We was determined the serum and peripheral blood IL-17 levels after activating by based on Galactosylceramid and IL-2 then the IL-17 level was measured by Enzyme-linked immunisorbentassey (ELISA) methods. </span></p> <p class="p" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt line-height: 150%"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150%">Results: </span></b>Plasma level of IL-17 in patients with chronic infection did not differ compared to the control group (5.5&plusmn;2.4 vs. 6.2&plusmn;1.2 pg/ml p=0.5). The level of supernatant IL-17 was significantly increased in both Galactosylceramid-IL-2-stimulated PBMCs than control group that ratio IL-17 after 72 h was higher than other times. The plasma level of IL-17 in HCV 3a-infected patients was higher than 1a-type patients that this difference was not significant (6&plusmn;2.5 vs. 4.8&plusmn;2.5 p=0.45).</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt line-height: 150% font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif">As the recent data, the roles of NKT cells in human liver injury and fibrosis remain unknown. However, the precise role of NKT cells in HCV patients as this play a role in innate immune responses in the liver in higher samples was performed.&nbsp;</span></p> NKT cells, hepatitis C virus, Th17 cells, 6 11 http://journal.isv.org.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-78-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Ahmad Najafi ahmad.najafi.2012@gmail.com 10031947532846003248 10031947532846003248 No Department of Immunology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Ali Shams alis743@yahoo.com 10031947532846003249 10031947532846003249 Yes Department of Immunology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Abbas Ahmadi Vasmehjani a.ahmadi.tums.ac@gmail.com 10031947532846003250 10031947532846003250 No Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Amir Hossein Mansourabadi ahvasmehjani@gmail.com 10031947532846003251 10031947532846003251 No Department of Immunology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran