22 among rs8099917 GT/GG carriers versus 0.37 among TT carriers in the French cohort, P = 0.16, 0.52 versus 0.69 in the SCCS, P = 0.006; Fig. S1C). Similarly, the proportion of rapid fibrosis progressors differed according to IL28B rs8099917 in both cohorts, although significance was not

reached in the French cohort (proportion of rapid progressors 0.51 among GT/GG carriers versus 0.42 among TT carriers in the French cohort, P = 0.08; 0.56 versus 0.49 in the SCCS, P = 0.003; Fig. S1D). However, the effect differences in patients infected by HCV genotype 1 (Fig. S1E) versus genotype 3 (Fig. S1F) were less striking than those observed for the fibrosis stage. Similar but less significant results were found for rs12979860 (Fig. S2). Elevated ALT levels tended to be less frequent among patients BMS-777607 carrying the minor alleles of rs8099917 and rs12979860, but none of these differences were significant (Table S2), even after stratification by viral genotypes (Fig. 1B). Finally, no association was detected between IL28B SNPs and the development of HCC (Fig. S1).

Among patients with assessable response to treatment, a fibrosis stage ≥F2 was associated with a reduced sustained virologic response (SVR) (OR = 0.553, 95% CI 0.351-0.872, P = 0.01), but necroinflammatory activity (P = 0.7) and FPR (P = 0.7) were not. Using well-characterized chronic hepatitis C patients from two large cohorts, we showed that IL28B polymorphisms linked to a poor virological response to therapy are protective against liver necroinflammation and fibrosis progression, especially Selleckchem Sirolimus check details in patients with HCV genotypes other than 1. Previous observations on the role of IL28B polymorphisms with regard to necroinflammatory activity, fibrosis stage, transaminases, or gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase levels were reported from Japan,29 and, in abstract form, from the IDEAL trial performed in the U.S.30, 31 However, these studies were largely29 or exclusively30, 31 limited to patients infected with HCV genotype 1. A more recent work on a limited series of patients failed to show any association between IL28B genotype and

FPR.32 In the present study we analyzed the association of IL28B polymorphisms with necroinflammatory activity, ALT, fibrosis stage, and FPR in two large, well-pedigreed series of patients infected with the four most frequent HCV genotypes. Our data show a clear association between the poor treatment-response associated alleles of IL28B and low fibrosis stages as well as slow FPR in patients infected with HCV non-1 genotypes, but not in those infected with genotype 1, in agreement with the IDEAL and the Milan studies.32 A weak association between the poor treatment response allele of rs8099917 and low fibrosis stages was observed in the Japanese study, but the discrepancy may be explained by the contribution of genotype 2-infected patients, who were analyzed together with those infected with genotype 1.