Thrombocytopenia in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C: A Possible Role of HCV on Platelet Progenitor Cell Maturation

  • El Barbary, Magdy A.
  • Saad, Alaa Eldin M.
  • Attia, Fadia M.
  • Mandour, Magda I.
  • Haidara, Mohamed A.
  • Dallak, Mohammad M.
  • Isenovic, Esma R.

  • 1 Department of Physiology, Clinical pathology, College of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

    2 Department of Physiology, Kasr-Al-Aini Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    3 Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

    4 Vinča Institute, University of Belgrade, Department for Molecular Genetics and Radiobiology, Belgrade, Serbia

Corresponding author:

Mohamed A. Haidara, Department of Physiology, Kasr Al-Aini Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

Email: [email protected]

Angiology 61(3):p 304-313, March-April 2010. | DOI: 10.1177/0003319709343178

Abstract

A total of 30 patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) thrombocytopenia (TP) and 20 healthy controls were studied. Both groups were subjected to complete medical history, clinical examination in addition to assessment of hepatitis markers: level of thrombopoietin (Tpo), Geimsa-stained bone marrow smears, and in vitro short-term megakaryocytic progenitors culture (CFU-MK). Serum Tpo level was significantly elevated in patients with TP HCV. Short-term CFU-MK showed an evident depression in the colony-forming unit-megakaryocyte (CFU-meg). There is a positive correlation between the number of CFU-meg and the platelet count and between serum Tpo level and prothrombin time, transaminase, albumin, and the Child Pugh score of liver disease; a negative correlation between serum Tpo level and the number of CFU-meg and between serum Tpo level and the platelet count. Thus, the level of Tpo could be an indicator of intact functional response of the hepatocytes.

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