The association between HBV genotyping and clinical characteristics and expression of TH1/TH2 cytokines / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the association between HBV genotyping and clinical characteristics and expression of TH1/TH2 cytokines.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of IL-4 and IFN-gamma was detected with flow cytometry for 102 HBV infections and 48 healthy controls. 50 CHB patients were randomly selected for HBV genotyping with real-time fluorescence PCR assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Higher expression of IL-4 in peripheral blood was detected in patients with HBV infection than healthy controls (P < 0.001); No significant differences on expression of Th1/Th2 cytokines were observed in CHB patients with different HBV DNA levels or HBeAg status (P > 0.05). There were 34 (68%) patients with genotype B infection and 16 (32%) with genotype C infection. Compared to patients with genotype B infection, the patients with genotype C infection showed higher levels of IL-4 (P = 0.018), and Th1/Th2 ratio decreased,but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.2262).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The different expression of TH1/TH2 cytokines may elucidate cellular immune response and clinical outcome difference between patients with genotype B infection and genotype C infection.</p>