ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze hepatitis B virus ( HBV)-specific T lymphocyte responses dur-ing different stages of HBV infection.Methods Eighty-four patients with HBV infection were recruited in this study.They were divided into four groups including acute HBV infection group (8 cases), chronic HBV infection group (39 cases), hepatocirrhosis group (17 cases) and hepatocellular carcinoma group (20 ca-ses) .HBV-specific T cell responses were detected by using ELISPOT assay in combination with magnetic beads sorting assay.Results (1)The magnitudes of HBV-specific T cell responses in patients with acute HBV infection ,chronic HBV infection , hepatocirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were respectively (2067.00±1029.00) SFU/106 PBMCs, (288.50±57.69) SFU/106 PBMCs, (96.25±31.06) SFU/106 PBMCs and (71.47±14.26) SFU/106 PBMCs.The differences with the magnitudes of HBV-specific T cell responses among patients from the four groups were significant (P<0.01).(2)HBV Core (HBV C) protein induced the strongest T cell responses[ (323.90±130.30) SFU/106 PBMCs] in patients with acute HBV infection in comparison with HBV-surface ( HBV S ) protein, HBV P protein and HBV X protein ( P=0.0037).The strongest T cell responses in patients with chronic HBV infection were induced by using HBV P protein [(127.20±54.42) SFU/106 PBMCs], followed by using HBV S protein, HBV C protein and HBV X protein (P=0.0159).(3)The magnitudes of IFN-γreleasing induced by HBV X protein, HBV P protein, HBV S protein and HBV C protein showed no significant differences in patients with either hepato-cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma, but were lower than those induced in patients with chronic HBV infec-tion.Conclusion HBV-specific T cell responses were gradually reduced along the progression of HBV in-fection from acute HBV infection to chronic HBV infection, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.The HBV-specific T cell responses induced by viral proteins might play different roles in different stages of HBV infection.