studies

760A AASLD ABSTRACTS HEPATOLOGY, October, 2015
mononuclear cells were collected at baseline, treatment week
4 (TW4), end-of treatment (EoT) and follow-up week 12 in all
patients and flowcytometry was performed after multicolour
staining for NK cells subsets (CD3, CD16, CD56, NKp30 and
NKG2D). The frequency of NK cells subsets was compared
between responders (R) (n=5) vs. relapsers (REL) (n=6) at different
therapy time-points. Plasma IP10, IL10 and IL12 levels were
measured by ELISA at same time-points. Results are presented
as medians. Results: Baseline HCV RNA levels were similar
between R and REL. Overall NK cells frequency (CD3-CD56+)
was higher in R than REL at baseline (5.79% vs. 2.38%,
p=0.02). The frequency of NK cells increased during therapy,
but proportions remained higher in R than REL (7.5% vs. 4.2%).
CD56bright cells subset was higher in R than REL at baseline
(14.5% vs. 7.5%, p=0.01), but increased only in REL at EoT
to 14.8% and dropped to pre-treatment levels (7.6%) at FU.
The frequency of NKG2D was similar between R and REL at all
time-points. NKp30+ cells increased during therapy only in REL
than R (11.2% vs. 1.1%, p