The Characterization Of Peripheral T Lymphocyte Subsets And Dendretic Cell Subsets And Their Clinical Significance In Pediatric Subjects With Chronic HBV Infection

Objectives This study is aimed to characterize the peripheralT-lymphocyte subsets and dendritic cell subsets for evaluation oftheir clinical implication in chronically HBV-infected pediatricsubjects. Methods Fresh peripheral blood samples were obtainedfrom 29 HBV-infected pediatric cases and 15 healthycounterparts. The novel types of T lymphocyte subsets includingthe circulating naive (CD45RA+), memory ( CD45RO+ ) ,functional ( CD28+), activated ( HLA-DR+CD25+ ) and apoptosis( CD95+) T lymphocytes, together with the circulating dendriticcell subsets including monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC1)and plasmocytoid dendritic cells (DC2), respectively, weresimultaneously analyzed by flow cytometry assay. The clinicaldata such as the serum ALT level, HBV viral loads and theperipheral lymphocyte counts were simultaneously recorded fromeach of the enrolled HBV-infected cases. Results All thechronically HBV-infected children had an obviously increasingpercentage of CD8+CD28+ T cells (72.103 10.893%) ,CD8+CD38+( 75.800 8.512% )and CD8+CD95+( 3.467 1.457% ) T-lymphocytes, and there were significant differences between the children with chronic B hepatitis and the healthy children (P<0.05). Compared to the healthy children, the increased absolute number of CD8+CD28+ ( 0.619 0.249xl09/L ) , CD8+CD38+ ( 0.740 0.312xl09/L ) and CD8+CD95+ ( 0.164 0.128xl09/L ) T-lymphocytes in the patients was significant (P<0.05). However, the statistical association of the aforementioned immune cells was not found between serum HBV viral load levels and the T-lymphocyte subsets. In addition, the absolute population of peripheral DC1 and DC2 was found to significantly decrease in HBV children by comparison to healthy children (P<0.01). Interestingly, the alteration of DC subsets in patients was not statistically associated with the serum HBV viral loads. Conclusion Our novel findings may provide valuable information for physician to get more insight into understanding the pathogenesis of disease progression of HBV infected children. The underlying mechanisms of the above clinical characteristics deserve to be further studies in chronically HBV-infected children.