The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the leading causes of acute and chronic hepatitis representing a serious public health threat. Cytokines are known to be important chemical mediators that regulate the differentiation, proliferation and function of immune cells and accumulating evidence indicate that the inadequate immune responses are responsible for HBV elimination or persistency. The study aimed to determine the cytokine profiles (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-17A) at the clinical courses of HBV infection and investigate the association with genotypes. A total of 66 plasma samples, 19 from patients with acute and 47 with chronic hepatitis B infection were tested by biochemical tests, nested-PCR, real-time PCR and cytokines were evaluated using a commercial BD CBA Human Th1/Th2/Th17cytokines kit. Healthy controls (10 subjects) were selected from blood donors with no history of liver diseases. No correlation was found between genotypes, viral load and cytokines analyzed. All cytokines showed higher levels of production among infected individuals when compared to the control group. A positive correlation classified as moderate to strong was found between cytokines, IFN-Y, TNF, IL-10, IL-6, IL4 e IL-2 through Spearman's correlation coefficient. TNF (p = 0.009) IL-10 (p <0.001) and IL-6 (p <0.001) were higher in acute individuals compared to chronic and control group, theses cytokines could be involved in viral elimination and protection against chronicity.

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