[Phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells derived dendritic cells from patients with chronic hepatitis B.]

The aim of this study was to access phenotype changes of dendritic cells (DC) cultured from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B and to reveal the relationship between phenotype of DC and ALT or HBV DNA.

Indices of ALT and serum HBV DNA were measured in 37 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 21 healthy controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from all patients and healthy controls, and cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stumilating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-)in RPMI 1640 medium that contained 10% fetal calf serum. After culturing for 7 days, the DC was counted and the phenotypes were detected by FACS. Then the data were statistically analysed.

The DC was significantly fewer (P less than 0.05) in patients with chronic hepatitis B than the controls. In particular, the expressive level of CD83 and CD86 on DC's surface from patients with chronic hepatitis B were also significantly lower (P less than 0.05) than that from the controls. In the patients with hepatitis B, the indices of DC had a significantly negative correlation with the level of serum HBV DNA (P less than 0.05), but no significant relationship was found between ALT and indices of DC (P greater than 0.05).

The DC cultured from patients with chronic hepatitis B were few and had immature phenotype. These changes had a significantly negative correlation with the level of serum HBV DNA, but had not correlation with the inflammatory reaction levels in the liver. DC was associated with the clearance of HBV in patients with hepatitis B.