Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of peripheral blood Treg and Th17 cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C（CHC） and hepatitis C-induced liver cirrhosis （LC）. Methods 35 patients with CHC-induce LC,31 patients with CHC and 66 healthy subjects were enrolled in our hospital between March 2017 and January 2019. Serum interleukin-6（IL-6）,IL-17 and transforming growth factor-β （TGF-β） were assayed by ELISA,and peripheral blood Treg and Th17 cells were detected by FCM. The area under ROC curve（AUC） was drawn to observe the predictive value of liver cirrhosis by each parameters. Results Serum IL-6,IL-17 and TGF-β levels in patients with LC were （8.08±2.71）ng/L,（17.01±4.55）ng/L and （5.20±1.35） ng/L,significantly higher than [（6.64±2.33） ng/L,（12.76±3.46） ng/L and （4.19±1.07） ng/L,respectively,P<0.05] in healthy individuals or [（7.20±2.49） ng/L,（14.12±3.87） ng/L and （4.41±1.20） ng/L,respectively,P<0.05] in patients with CHC,and high serum TGF-βlevel could predict LC （AUC=0.963,P=0.000）;peripheral blood Treg cell percentage in patients with LC was（6.27±1.02） %,significantly higher than （5.75±0.84） % and （5.37±0.99） %,respectively （P<0.05） in patients with CHC or in healthy persons,while the ratio of Th17/Treg cells was （0.19±0.05）,much lower than （0.23±0.06） and （0.22±0.05）,respectively,in patients with CHC or in healthy persons （P<0.05）;ROC analysis showed that peripheral blood Treg cell percentage （AUC=0.820,P=0.000） or the ratio of Th17/Treg cells （AUC=0.607,P=0.041） could,while the TH17 cell percentage couldn’t predict the existence of LC. Conclusion Serum TGF-β level and peripheral blood Treg cells in patients with hepatitis C-induced LC changes obviously, which might make difference from in patients with chronic hepaitits C and help predict liver disease stage and diagnose LC early.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Hepatitis C, Treg cells, Cytokines, Prediction