Activins and Follistatin in Chronic Hepatitis C and Its Treatment with Pegylated-Interferon-α Based Therapy

Figure 1

Summary of innate immune response against hepatitis C virus. Infected hepatocyte releases interferon type I (α/β) to activate natural killer (NK) and natural killer T (NKT) cells. Dendritic cells (DCs) also secrete interleukin- (IL-) 12 to activate NKT cells. Those cells later secrete interferon-γ (INF-γ) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) to inhibit viral replication without causing destruction of the hepatocyte.