“…This result is thought to due to the fact that most of the epitopes from the JCC‐1 antigen are different to the epitopes from the HCV strains infecting each patient. A low SI in the proliferation assay shown in other reports 21 and the present results may also be attributed to the multiantigenic epitopes 8,9 and multispecies of HCV strains; 10,11 that is, differences in amino acid sequences may exist between antigens found in vivo in patients with CHC and the recombinant HCV‐related antigens used in vitro . It is, therefore, natural that T cell proliferation to JCC‐1 antigen did not correlate with the degree of apoptosis in freshly obtained T cells, but it is somewhat strange that apoptosis in freshly obtained T cells could not be related to sALT, because one can propose that a high value of sALT reflects the fact that T cells are effectively stimulated in vivo with optimal epitopes, leading to proliferation but not to apoptosis.…”