Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 released from macrophages induced by hepatitis C virus promotes monocytes migration

•MCP-1 were up-regulated in THP-1 and macrophages induced by HCV infection.•HCV infected macrophages promote the migration of monocytes.•Long-term of HCV infection induced apoptosis of macrophages.•The morphology of Huh7 cells co-cultured with monocyte/macrophages were greatly changed.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection usually progress to chronic liver disease and shows a significant increase in total monocyte/macrophages numbers in the liver. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) plays a role in the recruitment of monocytes to the liver. In this study we found that MCP-1 were up-regulated in macrophages cultured with cell-culture derived infectious HCV particles (HCVcc) and promoted the migration of monocytes. IL1β, IL6 and TNFα were factors that induced MCP-1 expression, which were up-regulated in macrophages induced by HCV. Long-term of HCV incubation induced apoptosis of macrophages. Finally, we observed the effect of HCV infected macrophages on nearby liver cells. Huh7 cells continuously co-cultured with monocyte/macrophages displayed increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the morphology of Huh7 cells were greatly changed. Taken together, our study provides more information for the role of monocyte/macrophages in HCV related chronic liver disease.