Expression Profiles of Circulating Cytokines, Chemokines and Immune Cells in Patients With Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Background: immune cells and molecules play a vital role in initiating, maintaining, regulating immunological homeostasis and inflammation in many pathological and physiological processes; however, the changes on expressions and functions of these cells and molecules in hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection have not been elucidated well. objectives: the current study aimed to determine the expression pattern of different cytokines, chemokines, immune cells in hbv infection and their association with disease progression. patients and methods: sixty-nine patients with chronic hbv infection were enrolled. five immune cell subsets and 46 cytokines and chemokines were analyzed by flow cytometry and luminex 200. results: in comparison to healthy individuals and asymptomatic hbv carriers, expression of cxcl9, cxcl10, cxcl11, and il-10 were elevated in patients with chronic active hbv and had positive correlation with alt levels. in contrast, g-csf, mcp-3, and ifn-γ levels were significantly decreased in patients with chronic active hbv infection in contrast to carriers and healthy individuals; however, these down regulations did not show any correlation with either virological findings or liver inflammation. although the proportion of cd4+ cd25 high regulatory t cells (tregs) was higher in patients with hbv infection than in healthy controls, no correlations were found between tregs and other cytokines or chemokines. conclusions: cxcr3-associated chemokines might contribute to liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis b, while mcp-3 and g-csf were inhibited by hbv infection. host immune response was suppressed as manifested by an increase in cd4+ cd25high tregs and il-10 as well as a decrease in ifn-γ. exploiting the expression pattern of cytokine and chemokine may help to develop a better understanding of chronic hbv infection pathogenesis.