Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection induces liver damage and the HCV/Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-coinfection may further contribute to its progression. The HLA-G molecule inhibits innate and adaptive immunity and may be deleterious for chronically virus-infected cells. Thus we studied 204 HCV-mono-infected patients, 142 HCV/HIV-coinfected patients, 104 HIV-mono-infected patients and 163 healthy subjects. HLA-G liver expression was similarly induced in HCV and HCV/HIV specimens, increasing with advanced fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity, and with increased levels of liver function-related enzymes. Plasma soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) levels were higher in HCV/HIV patients compared to HCV, HIV and to healthy individuals. sHLA-G continued to be higher in coinfected patients even after stratification of samples according to degree of liver fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity when compared to mono-infected patients. Some HLA-G gene haplotypes differentiated patient groups and presented few associations with liver and plasma HLA-G expression. HLA-G thus may help to distinguish patient groups.

慢性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染会引起肝损伤，并且HCV /人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）合并感染可能进一步促进其进展。HLA-G分子抑制先天性和适应性免疫，可能对慢性感染病毒的细胞有害。因此，我们研究了204例HCV单感染患者，142例HCV / HIV合并感染患者，104例HIV单感染患者和163名健康受试者。在HCV和HCV / HIV标本中，HLA-G肝的表达类似地被诱导，随着晚期纤维化和坏死性炎症活性的增加以及与肝功能相关的酶水平的增加而增加。HCV / HIV患者的血浆可溶性HLA-G（sHLA-G）水平高于HCV，HIV和健康个体。与单感染患者相比，即使根据肝纤维化程度和坏死性炎症活性对样本进行分层后，并发感染患者的sHLA-G仍继续较高。一些HLA-G基因单倍型区分了患者组，并且与肝脏和血浆HLA-G表达几乎没有关联。因此，HLA-G可能有助于区分患者群体。