HBV Infection: Host's Cellular Response And Clinical Outcomes

Objective:The pathogenesis of HBV infection has not been well elucidated. Our study aims to analyse the relationship between the clinical outcome of HBV infection and the host's cellular immunity and to investigate the pathogenesis of HBV infection through comparing T-lymphocyte subsets, HBV-specific T cell response and the proportion of peripheral blood regulatory T cells of patients with symptomatic chronic hepatitis B, asymptomatic HBV carriers and patients who had recovered from subclinical HBV infection. Methods:72 patients from Peking Union Medical College Hospital were divided into three groups: 35 were patients with symptomatic chronic hepatitis B, 25 were asymptomatic HBV carriers, and other 12 were patients who had recovered from subclinical HBV infection.1) Flow cytometry was used to detect the peripheral blood T-lymphocyte subsets including the count and proportion of T cells, B cells, NK cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+CD28+ T cells, CD8+CD28+ T cells, CD4+CD45RA+62L+ naive T cells, CD4+CD45RA- memory/effector T cells and CD8+CD38+ activated T cells in 35 patients with symptomatic chronic hepatitis B, 25 asymptomatic HBV carriers and 35 health blood donors as normal controls. In addition, 47 patients with HIV infection and 11 patients with HIV/HBV coinfection were chosen to investigate the change of CD8+CD38+ activated T cells.2) The frequencies of HBV-specific CD4+ T cells to recombinant HBV core antigen were tested with IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunospot assays (ELISpot) in 61 patients. 30 of them were patients with symptomatic chronic hepatitis B, 22 were asymptomatic HBV carriers and 9 were patients who had recovered from subclinical HBV infection. The frequencies and breadths of HBV-specific CTL...