Expression levels of CD4~+CD25~+ regulatory T cells in peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B and clinical significance

Objective To investigate the proportion of CD4+CD25highTreg and CD4+CD25+CD127low/-Treg in peripheral blood in patients with chronic hepatitis B(CHB) and determine the relationship between the proportion of CD4+CD25+Treg and clinical parameters.Methods Fresh isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs) of 28 patients with CHB and 24 healthy donors were analyzed for the proportion of CD4+CD25+Treg using flow cytometry by surface staining for CD4-PC5,CD25-FITC,CD127-PE.HBsAg,HBsAb,HBeAg,HBeAb and HBcAb were evaluated.HBV DNA levels were measured using real-time RT-PCR.Results The proportions of CD4+CD25highTreg to CD4+ T cells(3.36%±2.59%) and CD4+CD25+CD127low/-Treg(4.05%±1.63%) to CD4+ T cells in patients with CHB were higher than those in health controls(1.60%±0.66%,1.75%±0.83%,P0.01) in peripheral blood.The CHB patients with high level alanine amino transferase(ALT)(ALT100U·L-1) had a higher fraction(4.26%±3.10%) of CD4+CD25highTreg in peripheral blood than those patients with low level ALT(ALT100U·L-1,2.52%±2.72%,P0.05).The percentage of CD4+CD25highTreg was correlated with ALT level(r=0.44,P0.05).Conclusion The level of Treg in CHB patients is higher than that in health controls.The expression of CD25 could be influenced by the level of ALT.As a specific cell surface marker,CD127 can be helpful to obtain pure CD4+CD25+Treg.