IL-12 Levels In The Serum And PBMC Culture Supernatant Of Patients With HBV Infection And Its Significance

IntroductionHBV infection process is determined by antivirus immunity reaction of hosts , humoral immunity, especially HBsAb, is necessary for host to clear HBV. But cell immunity is more important for patients with HBV infection to clear HBV. Because HBV specific cell toxity T lymphcytes(CTL) can lyse liver cells with HBV infection, cell immunity is also the reason for liver injury. Due to difference of host immunity reaction, there are different clinical types for HBV infection , such as: acute hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis B and HBsAg carriers.IL - 12 plays important roles on both non - specific immunity and specific immunity. IL - 12 makes a bridge between non - specific immunity and specific immunity and it is a proinflainmary cell factor. For its role on NK cells, IL - 12 was called as NK cell stimulant factor (NKSF) when it was first found. IL - 12 is a potent inducer of cyto-kine produced by T cells and NK cells, particularly IFN-r, and also a growth factor for preactivated T cells and NK cells , and it can enhance cytotoxic activity in both CTL and NK cells . The most important is that IL - 12 has an obligatory role for generation of T - helper cells type 1 (Th1) and for optimal differentiation of CTL.There were few reports about detecting IL - 12 in the serum orPBMC culture supernatant of patients with HBV infection and they were all reports about patients with chronic hepatitis B and HBsAg earners. There have been no reports about acute hepatitis B. Rossol reported that serum IL - 12 of patients with chronic hepatitis B and HBsAg carriers were higher than that of health persons. JI W reported that IL - 12 levels in the serum and PBMC culture supernatant of healthy persons were higher than that of patients with chronic hepatitis B and HBsAg carriers. We detected IL - 12 Levels in the serum and PBMC culture supernatant of patients with acute hepatitis B , chronic hepatitis B, HBsAg carriers and healthy persons and discussed its significance.Materials and MethodsSeven patients with acute hepatitis B, nine patients with chronic hepatitis B and ten HBsAg carriers were chosen to research, and ten healthy persons were chosen as control. The diagnosis of patients was based on the diagnosis criteria of viral hepatitis conference of china in 2000 year.7ml blood was obtained from perivessel, 2ml was used to separate serum, heparin was added in another 5ml blood. PBMC was isolated from heparinized blood by centrifugation on a Ficoll Hypaque density gradient. Cells were collected and washed with PBS. Then the cells were seeded in 24 - well flat - bottom plates at a concentration of 1+ 106 cells/well and cultured in a humidified atmosphere at 37 C with 5%CO2 in RPMI medium including HBcAg(0.5g/ml). After 72 hour culture of PBMC , the supernatant was obtained and stored in -20 C refrigerator for detecting.IL-12 levels in the serum and PBMC culture supernatant were detected by ELISA method.Result1. Serum IL-12: the serum IL - 12 of 2 patients were positive and that of 5 patients were negative in patients with acute hepatitis B; the serum IL - 12 of 4 patients were positive and that of 5 patients were negative in patients with chronic hepatitis B; the serum IL - 12 of one patient was positive and that of nine patients were negative in HBsAg carriers; all healthy persons were negative. Serum IL - 12 positive rate of patients with acute hepatitis was 28. 6% , serum IL -12 positive rate of patients with chronic hepatitis B was 44.4% , serum IL - 12 positive rate of HBsAg carriers was 10% , serum IL - 12 positive rate of healthy persons was 0%.The results showed that serum IL - 12 positive rate of patients with chronic hepatitis B(44.4% ) was significantly higher than that of healthy persons(P<0.05) ,also higher than that of patients with acute hepatitis (28.6%) ,and both of them were all higher than that of HBsAg carriers (10%), but there was not significant difference either a-mong acute hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis B and HBsAg carriers or a-mong acute hepatitis B, HBsA...