Supernatants from IHL stimulated with media (control), HCV-Core pool-1, pool-2 and pool-3 peptides (1:20 dilutions of conditioned media) were incubated with cultures of human HSC (LX-2 cell line) for 24 h. The HSC fibrogenic RNA response was assessed by qRT-PCR for COL1A1 and MMP-1 normalized to B2M, shown as relative fold change to media control. In comparison to media, HCV-stimulated supernatants from slow progressors (SP), but not rapid progressors (RP) induced expression of putatively fibrolytic MMP-1, but not of pro-fibrogenic COL1A1. Stars indicate significant difference (p<0.05).