Correlation of the expression of IL-7 receptor(CD127) on T cells with serum IL-7 level and HBV load in patients with chronic HBV infection

Objective To investigate the correlation between the progression of HBV infection and the IL-7 receptor on T lymphocytes by detecting the expression of CD127 on the surface of T cells in HBV infected patients.Method The expression of CD127 on the surface of T lymphocytes from 125 HBV infected patients and 40 healthy controls was detected by flow-cytometry.Serum IL-7 level was measured by ELISA.HBV DNA was quantitatively detected with real-time PCR.Results The positive rates of CD127 on CD4 and CD8 T cells in HBV infected patients were(84.59±5.69)% and(38.45±3.03)% respectively.The expression of CD127 on CD8 T cells in the patients decreased significantly(P0.01) compared with that in healthy controls.The expression of CD127 in the patients was higher than that in the severe patients(P0.05).The serum level of IL-7 in the patients was higher than that in healthy controls,and was negatively correlated with the expression rate of CD127 on the CD8 T cells(r=-0.358,P0.05).The HBV load was negatively correlated with the expression rate of CD127 on CD8 T cells(r=-0.432,P0.05).Conclusions The expression of CD127 on CD8 T lymphocyte is closely correlated with the progression of HBV infection.