Expression and relationship between HDAg and bcl-2／bax in liver tissue of the patients with hepatitis D / 免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective　To study the role of bcl-2 and bax in the pathogenesis of hepatitis D. Methods　Expression of HDAg， bcl-2 and bax in liver specimens of 79 patients with hepatitis D were studied by immunohistochemistry technique. Meanwhile， the relationship between expression of HDAg and that of bcl-2／bax in liver specimens of patients were studied by double labelling technique and serial sections.Results　bcl-2 was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes， bax mainly in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes and partly in the nucleus of hepatocytes， and HDAg mainly in the nucleus of hepatocytes. Most of HDAg and bax positive cells were distributed among infiltrating lymphocytes at the periportal region especially at the advancing edges of areas of “piecemeal necrosis”. Most of hepatocytes of bax positive was found to locate near to positive cells of HDAg， and there were positive correlations between degrees of bax expression and HDAg expression（P＜0.05）. Conclusions　The distribution and the expression of bax and HDAg are significantly correlated with the activity of inflammation and the severity of the liver damage， and HDV infection may induce the expression of bax in the hepatocytes，and hepatocyte apoptosis mediated by bcl-2／bax may play an important role in the liver cell injury by HDV infection.