Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases and is induced by hepatitis B virus (HBV). The chronic, asymptomatic, and occult forms of hepatitis B are long-term infections that can lead to various hepatic cancers and cirrhosis in the carrier. IL-12 is one of the main cytokines involved in inducing appropriate immune responses against viral infections, especially HBV. Therefore, the aim of the present review was to address the most recent information within the database regarding the status and association between IL-12 and hepatitis B infection and its complications including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods: The data presented was collected by searching the following keywords in the Pubmed and Scopous databases: Hepatitis B, occult HBV infection, chronic HBV infection, asymptomathic HBV infection, acute HBV infection, fulminant HBV infection, IL-12, and all the papers regarding the relation between IL-12 and hepatitis B were used. These data were presented in the current review article.
Results: Results showed that IL-12 plays important roles in Hepatitis B infection and patients infected with the long-term form of hepatitis B are unable to produce sufficient amount of this cytokine.
Conclusions: Our research provided mechanistic insights into the immunoprotective roles of IL-12 and proposed that it can be considered as an important molecule for immunotherapy of HBV infected infection.

DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2013.130201