Comparative study on antifibrotic effect with interferon-γ versus interferon-α in treatment of chronic hepatitis B

[Objective]To observe the efficacy for antifibrosis with interferon gamma(IFN-γ) versus interferon alpha (IFN-α) in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. Forty patients with chronic Hepatitis B were divided into IFN-γ, IFN-α therapy group and control group. Patients in IFN-γ group received IFN-γ of 1 MU for nine months,patients in IFN-α group received IFN-α-2b of 3 MU for six months. All patients had liver biopsy within 1 week before starting therapy and at the end of therapy. Blinded biopsies were scored according to a semiquantitative scoring system (SSS). The serum fibrosis marks were measured. At the end of treatment, the scores of fibrosis (10.2±5.3) vs (11.8±6.4) had a significant reduction in the patients of both IFN-γ and IFN-α group,was significantly lower than that before (13.4±5.4) vs (13.5±7.2) treatment (P 0.01 and P 0.05, respectively). The levels of serum hyaluronic acid (165.2±98.4) ng/mL and (215.3±132.6) ng/mL in both IFN-γ and IFN-α group after treatment were significantly lower than that before treatment and that in control group (P 0.001). The scores of fibrosis and the levels of HA in IFN-γ group were decreased than that of IFN-αgroup after treatment (P 0.05 and P 0.01, respectively). [Conclusions] This study indicates that IFN-γ is the better drug to antifibrosis in the patients with chronic hepatitis B.