Suppressor T‐cell activity in chronic hepatitis B‐virus infection: Relationship with the presence of HBV‐DNA in serum

Abstract

Suppressor T-cell activity and allogeneic T-cell response to concanavalin A (ConA) were investigated in 46 patients chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Thirty-eight patients had chronic active hepatitis, seven of whom were superinfected with Delta virus, and eight were healthy chronic HBV carriers. T-cell suppressor activity was in the normal range in healthy carriers and in patients negative for serum HBV-DNA, independent of the e antigen status. In contrast, the group of patients positive for HBV-DNA exhibited a significant reduction in suppressor activity. Longitudinal studies in patients who cleared serum HBV-DNA demonstrated that suppressor T-cell activity became normal thereafter. These results suggest a relationship between suppressor T-cell function and the stage of viral replication in individuals with chronic HBV infection.

Role of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in Regulating the Chronic Development of Liver Injury Induced by Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity to Picryl Chloride

“…Recently, an essential role of CD4+ T cells or the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction was also evidenced in the pathogenesis of certain liver diseases such as human viral hepatitis C [6, 7, 8, 9]. On the other hand, the development of chronic hepatitis is usually accompanied by a decrease in or tolerance of immune functions [4, 10, 11]. Such varied immune status in the different stages of liver diseases may be closely related to the persistence of or recovery from liver damage.…”