Clinical Feature of Intrahepatic B-Lymphocytes in Chronic Hepatitis B

Abstract EN

Humoral immunity constitutes major defense mechanism against viral infections.

However, the association of hepatic injury and B-cells population in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers has not been studied well.

In this study, fifty seven hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive and HBeAg negative patients were studied to determine the expression of CD20, a cell surface marker expressed on B-cells, in liver biopsy sections using immunohistochemistry.

The patients’ clinical data at the time of liver biopsy were acquired from their medical records.

There was a significant association between log HBV DNA and both ALT (r=0.36, P=0.006) and histologic activity index (HAI) total score (r=0.3, P=0.02), respectively.

The CD20 was expressed in all 57 liver biopsy samples with a submembranous and membranous staining pattern and its expression was significantly associated with HAI total score (r=0.32, P=0.01) and stage of fibrosis (r=0.31, P=0.02).

The susceptible B lymphocytes to hepatitis B virus might be implicated in the development of immune mediated inflammation of HBV-induced hepatic injury.

The present data also support that the liver is potentially one of the secondary lymphoid organs.