[The analysis of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with Epstein Barr virus induced hepatitis]

Both humoral and cell-mediated immunity to Epstein Barr virus related antigen have recently been reported and are thought to be important for the generation of Epstein Barr virus induced human diseases. For this reason, to study immunological features in Epstein Barr virus induced hepatitis (EBH), we studied the ratio of various immunocompetent cells in peripheral blood and compared them to that of healthy control and acute hepatitis (disease control). We found that a significant elevation of CD8+ CD11- cells existed in EBH patients (48.9 +/- 18.3% in EBH, 17.0 +/- 6.9% in AH and 13.6 +/- 7.0% in healthy control) and atypical lymphocytes which are frequently observed in EBH belong to CD8+ CD11- cells. Regarding the study of surface expression of activated T cell markers, we found that these CD8+ cells also expressed HLA-DR antigen on their cell surface. Furthermore, the percentage of CD8+ CD11- cells returned to normal level with the recovery of their liver function. From these results, we can assume that activated CD8+ CD11- cells may have an important roles in generation of EBH.