Abstract:

Hepatitis C virus is the important pathogen of chronic liver diseases. The innate immunity plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C. Natural killer cells, abundant in liver, mediate innate immunological response, which has been one of the hotspots in the researches in recent years. The research progress of innate immunological response mediated by natural killer cells in chronic hepatitis C infection is reviewed in this paper.

Key words: hepatitis C virus, natural killer cell, innate immunity