The Primary Study Of Tfh Cell In Chronic HBV Infction

BackgroundHBV (Hepatitis B virus, HBV) infection is a global public health problemwhich is a major cause of acute and chronic liver injury. Although theinfection has significantly decreased with the popularity of vaccine, but stillthe HBsAg positive rate is up to7.18%. Many studies showed that the liverdamage created by HBV infcection is mainly caused by triggering thebody’s immune response, involving CD8+T lymphocytes, dendritic cells,regulatory T cells, natural killer cells and other immune cells. In this immunenetwork, Tfh (T follicular helper cell) has attracted more and more attentionin recent years. Tfh mainly exist in the GC (germinal center) which is mostlyresponsible for helping B lymphocyte to differentiate into plasma cells andmemory B cells.In the process of CHB(chronic hepatitis B), the hostimmune status determines the finally clinical outcomes. It is the variety ofthe host immune that results in the different pathological process of CHB..To sum up, it is valuable to classify the diverse immune response of CHBand study on the roles of Tfh. Thus we could understand the specifichumoral immune of CHB better. Methods1Study object: Choose chronic hepatitis B patients without treatment incurrent two years. Divided the patients into two groups by the clinicalindexes of AST, ALT and HBV: immune tolerantchronic asymptomaticHBV carriers（AsC） and chronic hepatitis B （CHB）. Healthy donorscame from the Healthcentre of Second Affiliate Hospital of ChongqingMedical University.2Detect the frequency of Tfh cell and the expression of cell surfacemolecules ICOS、PD1、CD40L；Detect the frequency of B cell and theexpression of cell surface molecules ICOSL、PDL1、CD40by FlowCytometer.3Detect the gene relative expression of CXCR5、Bcl6、IL-4、IL-21ofTfh cell in chronic HBV infection people.4Statistical analysis: All datas were analyzed using SPSS18.0forWindows software. Normal distributions datas were provided as means andSDs. Mono factor analysis and Levene’s test were used to analysis.Spearman rank correlation test was used for correlation analysis. For all tests,P<0.05of two sides was considered statistically significant.Results1The frequency of Tfh cells in Health Control group，AsC group, CHBgroup is up to（15.47±8.72）%,（17.66±9.29）%，（22.10±18.28）%respectively. There is no significant difference among those three groups. 2The expression of ICOS、PD1、CD40L on Tfh cells in CHB group issignificantly higher than that in HC group； there is no significantdifference between AsC group and CHB group; The expression ofICOSL、PDL1、CD40on B cells has no difference between CHB groupand HC group.3In Chronic Hepatitis B group, the frequency of ICOSL+Tfh andICOSL+B cells are positively correlated.The frequency of PDL1+Tfh cellsand PD1+B cells are positively correlated.4The gene relative expression of CXCR5、Bcl6、IL-4、IL-21of Tfhcell in chronic HBV infection people is significant higer than that in healthypeople.5In Chronic Hepatitis B group.Correlation analysis between clinicalindexes and laboratory indexes: the frequency of Tfh cell and ALT、ASTare positively correlated; the frequency of CD40+B andALT、 AST、 HBV-DNAare positively correlated.Conclusions1The expression of Tfh cell has no significant differenence betweenchronic hepatitis B infection group and health control group， suggestingthat the quantity change of Tfh cell is not the mainly responsible for thepathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B.2The expression of ICOS、PD1、CD40L on Tfh cell in ChronicHepatitis B group is significantly higher than that in Health Control group. And there is no significant difference between AsC group and CHBgroup,Suggesting that the function disorder of Tfh cell, inducing sustainedinfection, is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B.3The gene relative expression of CXCR5、Bcl6、IL-4、IL-21of Tfh cellin chronic HBV infection people suggests that genetic disorder of Tfh cellis involved in chronic HBV infection.4The frequency of Tfh cell and ALT、AST are positively correlatedindicating that Tfh cell is in involved in the process of liver injure, thusmay play a role of alarming immunological index in the liverinflammation.