Correlation between Toll-like receptor 4 on peripheral blood monocytes and serum IL-6 in patients with chronic severe hepatitis B

AIM: To study the change of Toll-like receptor 4(TLR4) on peripheral blood monocytes(PBMCs) and its role in the pathogenesis of chronic severe hepatitis B.METHODS: The expression of TLR4 on CD14+ PBMCs was determined by flow cytometry in 30 healthy control,31 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 30 patients with chronic severe hepatitis B.The level of serum interleukin-6(IL-6) was detected by ELISA.RESULTS: The expressions of TLR4 on PBMCs and serum IL-6 in the groups of healthy control,patients with chronic hepatitis B and patients with chronic severe hepatitis B were 2.3±1.1,3.7±2.3,6.9±4.1 mean fluorescence intensity(MFI) and(11.5±7.2) ng/L,(40.8±31.2) ng/L,(77.6±33.3) ng/L.The TLR4 value in the group of patients with chronic severe hepatitis B was significant higher than that in the group of healthy control and the group of patients with chronic hepatitis B(P0.05).However,there was no significant difference between the group of patients with chronic hepatitis B and the group of healthy control(P0.05).Serum IL-6 increased gradually and significantly between the group of healthy control and the groups of patients with chronic hepatitis B and patients with chronic severe hepatitis B.There was a significant positive correlation between the expression of TLR4 and the content of serum IL-6 in the group of chronic severe hepatitis B.CONCLUSION: TLR4 may play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic severe hepatitis B.