BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis B is certainly an extremely heterogeneous disease that may be divided into 4 phases: Immune system tolerant (IT), immune system energetic (IA), inactive carrier (IC) and hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg)-adverse hepatitis (ENEG). in comparison to additional phases. Summary Our results demonstrate the adjustments in immune system response design through the organic background of HBV disease. Both NK and T cells are functionally impaired in the IT MB05032 and IA phases. With the spontaneous clearance of HBeAg and hepatitis B surface antigen decline, NK cell cytokine production and HBV-specific T responses are partially restored in IC phase, and the ENEG phase is dominated by nonantigen-specific T cell responses. test. Correlations between variables were evaluated with the Spearman rank correlation test. 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Baseline patient characteristics The demographic, biochemical and virologic data of study population are illustrated in Table ?Table1.1. In accordance with the natural course, IT and IA patients were younger than IC and ENEG patients (0.05). The levels of serum HBsAg and HBV-DNA decreased successively from the IT, IA, ENEG to IC phase. HBeAg titers were significantly higher in the IT phase than those in the IA phase (0.05). Moreover, serum ALT and AST levels were markedly higher in IA and ENEG patients than those observed in IT, IC and healthy subjects. Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study population according to clinical phases = 23IT, = 20IA, = 27IC, = 22ENEG, = 18valuetest between immune tolerant and immune active phase. Data are presented as mean SD, serum HBV-DNA, HBeAg and HBsAg levels were log-transformed. ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; Tbil: Total bilirubin; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBeAg: Hepatitis B envelope antigen; HD: Healthy donors; IT: Immune tolerant; IA: Immune active; IC: Inactive carrier; ENEG: Hepatitis B envelope antigen-negative hepatitis. Frequencies and absolute number of NK cells, NK cell subsets, Compact disc4+ and Compact disc8+ T cells had been steady through the organic background As proven in Body fairly ?Body1,1, the percentage and total amount of circulating Compact disc3-Compact disc56+ NK cells, Compact disc56bbest NK cells, Compact disc56dim NK cells, global Compact disc4+ and Compact disc8+ T cells had been equivalent in healthy donors (HD) and sufferers with different clinical stages, suggesting that direct dimension of NK and T cell frequencies and amounts didn’t provide Rabbit polyclonal to TNNI2 distinct immune system signatures for the clinical stages. Open in another window Body 1 Frequencies and total amount of NK cells, Compact disc8+ and Compact disc4+ T cells in various scientific phases. A: Consultant dot plots depicting the gating technique for Compact disc3-Compact disc56+ NK cells, CD56dim and CD56bright subsets; B: Frequencies and total amount of circulating NK cells in various stages; C: Frequencies of Compact disc56bcorrect and Compact disc56dim NK cell subsets in various phases; D: Total number of Compact disc56bbest and Compact disc56dim NK cell subsets in various stages; E: Frequencies of Compact disc4+ and Compact disc8+ T cells in lymphocytes in various phases; F: Total amount of Compact disc4+ and Compact disc8+ T cells in various stages. All data are presented as mean SD. NK: Natural killer; HD: Healthy honors; IT: Immune tolerant; IA: Immune active; IC: Inactive carrier; ENEG: Hepatitis B envelope antigen-negative hepatitis. Subtle differences of NK cell phenotypes in different clinical phases The effects of different clinical phases on NK cell phenotypes were investigated (Physique ?(Physique2A-F).2A-F). Compared with HD, NKG2A expression in CD56dim NK cells was downregulated in the IC phase ( 0.05), while MB05032 NKp46 expression in CD56dim NK cells was upregulated in the IA phase ( 0.05). NKp30 expression in CD56dim NK cells and NKG2A expression in CD56bright NK cells were higher in the IT phase than the IC phase ( 0.05). Furthermore, the frequencies of CD56bright NK cells expressing NKp44 and CD56dim NK cells expressing CD69 were increased in the IA and ENEG phases in comparison to those in the IT, IC and healthy subjects MB05032 ( 0.05). Open in a separate window Physique 2 Phenotypes of NK cells in different clinical phases. A: Frequency MB05032 of CD56bright and CD56dim NK cells expressing the activating receptor NKp46; B: Frequency of CD56bright and CD56dim NK cells expressing the activating receptor NKp44; C: Frequency of Compact disc56bcorrect and Compact disc56dim NK cells expressing the activating receptor NKp30; D: Regularity of Compact disc56bbest and Compact disc56dim NK cells expressing the inhibitory receptor NKG2A; E: Regularity of Compact disc56bcorrect and Compact disc56dim NK cells expressing the activating receptor NKG2D; F: Regularity of.