Intrahepatic CXCL10 is strongly associated with liver fibrosis in HIV-Hepatitis B co-infection
Fig 2
(A) Liver fibrosis was significantly correlated with intrahepatic HIV DNA and with mRNA for CXCL10 and CXCR3. Plots showing correlations between liver fibrosis by TE (kPa) with intrahepatic HIV DNA, CXCL10, CXCR3 (left side panels) and between liver CXCL10 levels with intrahepatic HIV DNA, CXCR3 and peripheral AST (right side panels). The lower limit of detection for HIV RNA and HIV DNA was one copy per well. If there was no HIV PCR signal, this was recorded as zero and if there was a detectable signal but <1, this was recorded as 0.5 copies. All data points were included in the Spearman correlation. r = Spearman rank correlation coefficient. HIV human immunodeficiency virus, CXCL10 C-X-C motif chemokine 10, CXCR3 C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 3, TE transient elastography, AST Aspartate transaminase. (B) Liver fibrosis (kPa) and AST were higher in participants with detectable HIV DNA in the liver. Each symbol represents values from each participant. The lines represent the median and IQR. Comparisons were made using Wilcoxon Rank Sum test (* p<0.05).