V Alpha 24 NKT Cells In Peripheral Blood And Their Correlations With The Degrees Of Hepatic Injury In Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Objective Natural killer (NK) and natural killer T (NKT) cells in the liver play a key role in innate defenses against viral infection and tumor transformation. Recent evidence suggests that activation of NK or NKT cells also contributes to the development and progression of liver injury in a variety of rodent models. However, the roles of NKT cells in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection remain unclear. The aims of this study are to investigate the changes of Va24 NKT in peripheral blood and its possible association the severity of hepatic injury in patients with chronic HBV infection. Methods: Va24 natural killer T cells were detected in 43 patients with chronic HBV infection by the method of Flow Cytometry. The patients included in this study were 26 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB),9 patients with pose-hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (LC),8 patients with acute on chronic liver failure(ACLF) and 7 normal control (NC). Va24 NKT cells were expressed as the proportion of NKT cells to peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Result:Vα24 NKT cells in patients with CHB and ACLF were 0.8012%±0.2979% and 0.4638%±0.2244% respectively, which was significantly lower than that in NC (1.1114%±0.3546%, P＜0.05). Vα24 NKT cell levels showed significantly positive correlation with that of prothrombin time (PT) and significantly negative correlation with that of Total bilirubin (TB), Vα24 NKT cell levels showed no significant correlations with those of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and HBV-DNA. Conclusion:Va24 NKT cells in peripheral blood in patients with chronic HBV infection are decreased and are associated with the degree of hepatic injury. Our results imply that Va24 NKT cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B.