Characteristics Of T Cell Subsets And Serum Cytokines In Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection During Different Immune Status And After Antivirus Treatment

Objective To observe the percentages of CD4+and CD8+T cells in the peripheral blood and serum cytokine levels (IL-6, IL-10, IFN-γ and TNF-α) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection during different immune status and explore the association between the percentages of T cell subsets and HBeAg seroconversion.Methods Seventy-nine patients with chronic HBV infection as well as21healthy donors were enrolled in this study. Thirty-three HBeAg positive CHB patients received antiviral treatment were successfully followed for48weeks. At the end of48weeks,7of33HBeAg positive CHB patients achieved HBeAg seroconversion. Blood samples were collected for detecting the percentages of CD4+and CD8+T cells by flow cytometry. The percentages of CD4+and CD8+T cells were detected at five time points of antivirus treatment:T1:4week; T2:8week; T3:12week; T4:24week; T5:48week. Serum cytokines were detected by cytometric bead array (CBA).Results As compared with normal controls, the percentage of CD4+T cell and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+were lower in patients of immune reactive phase (p<0.05). However, the percentage of CD8+T cell were higher than normal controls (p<0.05). During the same monitoring period, the HBV DNA loads and ALT levels in patients with HBeAg seroconversion decreased significantly as compared with patients without HBeAg seroconversion. Besides, the increase of CD8+T cells during the period△T0～T1and△T0～T2and the increase of CD4+T cells during period△T0-T5were significantly different between HBeAg seroconversion patients and HBeAg non-seroconversion patients (p<0.05). The IL-10and IFN-y levels in patients of immune reactive phase were higher than health controls and patients in immune tolerant phase (p<0.05). The IL-10levels decreased significantly at12weeks (T3) and24weeks (T4) of antiviral treatment and were positively correlated with the HBV DNA loads and ALT levels.Conclusion The percentages of CD4+and CD8+T cell and serum cytokine levels were significantly different in various immune status of chronic HBV infection. In HBeAg positive CHB patients, the increase of CD8+T cell and CD4+T cell percentage during antiviral treatment were associated with high HBeAg sero-conversion rate.