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Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major global health problem. More than 170 million persons worldwide are infected with HCV. The Egyptian National Committee of Viral Hepatitis stated that 9.8% of Egyptians are HCV infected, whereas doctors and researchers claim that the real figure is between 15% and 20%. HCV is a causative agent of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and heptocellular carcinoma. HCV replicates in the membrane vesicles of human hepatocytes, these vesicles are highly enriched in proteins including ApoB and ApoE. ApoE is synthesized primarily by the liver in the circulation and is mainly found in the lipoprotein bound form, present in chylomicron (CM), VLDL and high density lipoprotein (HDL), at a plasma concentration 20-60 mg/l. ApoE seems to be involved in the HCV life cycle, the requirement for HCV infectivity suggests that it may also play an important role in the development of persistent HCV infection. |