ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of T-cell receptor (TCR) Ⅴβ subfamily in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) patients.Methods Twenty-eight patients with HBV-ACLF (HBV-ACLF group) and 32 patients with chronic hepatitis B flare (CHB-F group),who were treated in The Second People's Hospital from Oct.2010 to Mar.2012,and 20 healthy controls (HC group) were included in the study.Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the levels of TCR Ⅴβ subfamily and enzymelinked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the levels of serum cytokines [interleukin (IL)-2,IL-4,IL-6,IL-10,interferon (IFN)-γ and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α)] in the three groups.The comparison among three groups was done by one-way analysis of variance and the comparison between two groups was done by LSD-t test or rank sum test.Results The three groups had similar gender and age distribution (all P＞0.05).The HBV-ACLF group had significant different profiles of total bilirubin,albumin,prothrombin activity,international normalized ratio and cholesterol tatol compared with the CHB-F group (all P＜0.05).For patients in the HBV-ACLF group,the serum IL-2,IL-4,and IL-10 levels were lower(all P=0.000),and the IL-6 and IFN γ levels were higher than those of the HC group (all P=0.000).The IL-4,IL-10,and TNF-α levels in the CHB-F group were also significantly lower than those of the HC group (all P=0.000).Compared with the CHB-F group,the HBV-ACLF group had significantly lower IL-2,IL-10,and TNF-α levels (P=0.003,0.002,0.004),and higher IL-6 and IFN-γ levels (P=0.015,0.006).By one-way analysis of variance,there were significantly differences of △Ct1,△Ct5,△Ct7,△Ct12,△Ct15,△Ct20,△Ct22,and △Ct23 among the three groups (H=20.368,14.368,19.500,31.532,19.985,19.116,41.752 and 20.649,all P＜0.05).Conclusion The expression levels of TCR Ⅴβ subfamily and cytokines are changed in HBV-ACLF patients.