- About this Journal
- Abstracting and Indexing
- Aims and Scope
- Article Processing Charges
- Articles in Press
- Author Guidelines
- Bibliographic Information
- Citations to this Journal
- Contact Information
- Editorial Board
- Editorial Workflow
- Free eTOC Alerts
- Publication Ethics
- Reviewers Acknowledgment
- Submit a Manuscript
- Subscription Information
- Table of Contents
International Journal of Microbiology
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 647581, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/647581
Biological Significance of HCV in Various Kinds of Lymphoid Cells
Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Hospital, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi 980-8574, Japan
Received 16 September 2011; Accepted 12 December 2011
Academic Editor: David C. Straus
Copyright © 2012 Yasuteru Kondo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
It has been reported that HCV can infect not only hepatocytes but also various kinds of lymphoid cells. Although many reports have described the biological significance of lymphotropic HCV, the issue remains controversial since the target lymphoid cells might have various kinds of functions in the immune system. One of the important roles of lymphoid cells in HCV replication is being a reservoir of HCV. Several groups described the detection of HCV-RNA in lymphoid cells after HCV eradication in plasma. Another important role of lymphotropic HCV is that it acts as a carcinogenic agent and induces immune dysfunction. In this paper, we summarize the reports regarding the biological significance of lymphotropic HCV in representative lymphoid cells.