- 作者: I-Che Feng; Lok-Beng Koay; Ming-Jen Sheu; Hsing-Tao Kuo; Chi-Shu Sun; Chuan Lee; Wong-Lung Chuang; Shuen-Kuei Liao; Shih-Ling Wang; Ling-Yu Tang; Chia-Ju Cheng; Sun-Lung Tsai
- 作者服務機構: 1 Hepatogastroenterology Section, Department of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yung-Kang City; Tainan, Taiwan; ; 2 Hepatobiliary Division, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Causing, Taiwan; ; 3 Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Tao Yuen, Taiwan; ; 4 Liver Research Unit, Department of Medical Research, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yung-Kang City, Tainan, Taiwan
- 中文摘要: --
- 英文摘要: Acute exacerbations (AEs) of chronic hepatitis B (CH-B) are accompanied by increased T cell responses to hepatitis B core and e antigens (HBcAg/HBeAg). Why patients are immunotolerant (IT) to the virus and why AEs occur spontaneously on the immunoactive phase remain unclear. The role of HBcAg-specific CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells in AE and IT phases was investigated in this study. The SYFPEITHI scoring system was employed to predict MHC class II-restricted epitope peptides on HBcAg overlapping with HBeAg that were used for Treg-cell cloning and for the construction of MHC class II tetramers to measure Treg cell frequencies (Tregf). The results showed that HBcAg-specific Tregf declined during AE accompanied by increased HBcAg peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte frequencies. Predominant Foxp3-expressing Treg cell clones were generated from patients on the immune tolerance phase, while the majority of Th1 clones were obtained from patients on the immunoactive phase. Treg cells from liver and peripheral blood of CH-B patients express CD152 and PDl antigens that exhibit suppression on PBMCs proliferation to HBcAg. These data suggest that HBcAg peptide-specific Treg cells modulate the IT phase, and that their decline may account for the spontaneous AEs on the natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
- 中文關鍵字: --
- 英文關鍵字: acute exacerbation, chronic hepatitis B, immunoactive, immune tolerance, SYFPEITHI score, tetramer