PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Decreased peripheral natural killer cells activity in the immune activated stage of chronic hepatitis B.

  • Yuan Li,
  • Jiu-Jun Wang,
  • Shan Gao,
  • Qian Liu,
  • Jia Bai,
  • Xue-Qi Zhao,
  • You-Hua Hao,
  • Hong-Hui Ding,
  • Fan Zhu,
  • Dong-Liang Yang,
  • Xi-Ping Zhao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086927
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 2
p. e86927

Abstract

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Background & aimsThe natural course of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is characterized by different immune responses, ranging from immune tolerant (IT) to immune activated (IA) stages. In our study, we investigated the natural killer (NK) cells activity in patients at different immunological stages of chronic HBV infection.MethodsBlood samples obtained from 57 HBeAg positive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), including 15 patients in the immune tolerant (IT) stage, 42 patients in the immune activated (IA) stage, and 18 healthy individuals (HI). The analyses included flow cytometry to detect NK cells, the determination of cytokine levels as well as of surface receptor expression and cytotoxicity.ResultsNK cells in peripheral blood were significantly lower in patients in the IA stage of CHB compared to HI (pConclusionNK cells activity was lower in CHB patients, especially in those in the IA stage.