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Abstract

The host immune responses have been suggested to play a role in liver injury occurring in patients with chronic hepatitis C. In order to explore the relationship between the relative proportions of intrahepatic and peripheral blood lymphocytes (IHL, PBL), the levels of viremia, and the histological hepatitis activity score, three-color fluorescence-activated cytometric analysis was performed for 36 patients with chronic hepatitis C and six control subjects without chronic hepatitis. The liver biopsy was performed before any antiviral therapy. Each liver specimen was divided into two parts: one for histological examination and one for immunological analysis. Tricolor CD45 was used to improve "lymphogating." Fluorescein isothiocyanate- or phycoerythrin-conjugated monoclonal antibodies with specificity for CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD20 (lymphocyte subpopulations), for CD69 (activated lymphocytes), and for CD16/56 (natural killer cells) were used. The livers of patients with chronic hepatitis C contained a greater proportion of CD4+ lymphocytes that exhibited marked expression of CD69 than in control subjects (20.7 +/- 7.3% vs 10.2 +/- 4.6%, P = 0.027). Moreover, in patients with chronic hepatitis C, the proportion of CD4+ IHL correlated with the histological hepatitis activity evaluated by the Knodell score (r = 0.48, P = 0.004). No correlation was found between the percentage of CD4+ IHL and the level of viremia or transaminase activities. Our findings clearly indicate that a cellular immune response does take place in HCV-infected livers and could thus contribute to the outcome of hepatitis C virus infection.

Deficiency of CD8+ effector memory T cells is an early and persistent feature of multiple sclerosis

“…Furthermore, even if CD8 + T cells were to predominate over CD4 + T cells within the sum total of CNS lymphocytes this would not necessarily increase the CD4:CD8 T cell ratio in the blood because a predominance of CD8 + over CD4 + T cells within the liver in chronic hepatitis C is not accompanied by an increased CD4:CD8 T cell ratio in the blood. 24 For the following reasons we propose that the deficiency of CD8 + EM and EMRA T cells is the result of a primary defect rather than being secondary to the MS disease process. First, the deficiency is present at the onset of MS and at all stages of the clinical course, including the relapsing–remitting and progressive phases.…”