Inflammation of the liver caused by hepatotropic viruses affect millions of people and represents a significant public health problem worldwide. There are interactions between hepatotropic viruses and the host immune system that can influence the pathogenesis of liver injury. The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency of autoantibodies in patients with hepatitis C virus, and its correlation with the genotypes found. We studied 51 patients diagnosed by PCR of infection with hepatitis C and a group of 100 blood donors with all serological tests for infectious diseases negative. The 51 patients with virus C had an average age of 43 years, + / - 11.3, in the pre-treatment, 34 (66.7%) were male and 17 (33.3%) were female. Of these 13 (25.5%) were ANA positive, 45 (88.2%) were with genotype 1 and 11.8% with genotype 3. Patients who presented with antibodies had no detectable levels of AST, ALT, AST / ALT, γ-GT and alkaline phosphatase significantly different from those with negative antibody titers. Thus, we conclude that the antibodies present in the study sample are independent of disease progression and patient prognosis, though seems to be linked with genotype 1.
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