Changes In Peripheral T Cells Of Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Treated With Interferon Alpha: A Meta-analysis

Objective To investigate the changes in peripheral T cell subsets of patients with chronic hepatitis B(CHB) treated with interferon alpha(IFNα) by the systematical meta-analysis.Methods The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Pub Med, Wanfang digital periodical full text database, China journal full text database, CNKI, and VIP database were retrieved(data released before June 2015). Trials that met the standard form including randomized controlled trials, cohort studies and other Meta analysis were analyzed by the Rev Man 5.0 software.The difference was significant when p<0.05.Results 16 references were included. When compared with healthy group, the CHB patients showed decreased proportion of peripheral CD4+T cells(95% CI-5.57~-3.06, Z=6.73,P<0.00001), decreased ratio of CD4+T/CD8+T cells(95%CI-0.49~-0.38, Z=15.62, P<0.00001), but increased proportion of peripheral CD8+T cells(95% CI 3.73~5.65, Z=9.62,P<0.00001). These differences were all significant(p<0.05). After IFN αtreatment, responders displayed higher proportion of peripheral CD4+T cells(95% CI 6.52~9.52, Z=9.34, P<0.00001), higher ratio of CD4+T/CD8+T cells(95% CI 0.13~0.30, Z=5.02,P<0.00001), but lower proportion of peripheral CD8+T cells(95% CI-8.73~-5.51, Z=8.66,P<0.00001) than non responders group. These differences were significant(p<0.05). For the non-responders, there were no significant changes in the proportion of peripheral CD4+T cells(95% CI-0.23~2.26, Z=1.60, P=0.11),the proportion of peripheral CD8+T cells(95% CI-1.84~0.71, Z=0.87,P=0.38), or the ratio of CD4+T/CD8+T cells(95% CI-0.01~0.08, Z=1.46,P=0.15)(p>0.05).Conclusion Changes in the proportion and ratio of peripheral T cell subsets might be valuable to estimate the immune status of CHB patients and the efficacy of antiviral therapy.