An analysis of immunophenotyping of peripheral lymphocytes in adult patients with infectious mononucleosis and chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection / 中华内科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the immunophenotypic features of peripheral lymphocytes in adult patients with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated infectious mononucleosis (IM) and chronic active EBV infection (CAEBV).Methods Eighteen IM patients,12 CAEBV patients and 18 healthy donors were included.Lymphocyte subsets including CD3-CD+19 B cells,CD3-CD+16/56 NK cells,CD4+ and CD8+T cells in peripheral blood were measured by flow cytometry.The expression of activation markers (HLA-DR and CD38) on CD8+T cells and CD28 expression on T cells were also determined.Kruskal-Wallis H and MannWhitney U tests were used to compare variables among groups.Results IM patients had dramatically increased CD8+T cell counts than healthy donors (5.22 × 109/L vs 0.54 × 109/L,P ＜ 0.001).B cell counts moderately reduced in patients with IM than in healthy donors.No difference was found in absolute CD4+T cell and NK cell counts between IM and healthy donors.The levels of HLA-DR and CD38 on CD8+T cells significantly increased in IM patients compared with those in healthy controls.The intensity of CD28 on CD8+T cells significantly decreased,which was not seen on CD4+T cells.The median cell counts of B,NK,CD4+T and CD8+T subsets in CAEBV patients were 0.02 × 109/L,0.06 × 109/L,0.26 × 109/L and 0.21 ×109/L respectively,which were significantly lower than those in healthy donors (0.22 × 109/L,0.38 ×109/L,0.78 × 109/L,0.54 × 109/L) and IM patients (0.12 × 109/L,0.40 × 109/L,0.91 × 109/L,5.22 ×109/L).The positive rates of HLA-DR and CD38 on CD8+T cells in CAEBV patients were higher than those in healthy controls,but lower than those in IM patients.Conclusions The immunophenotypic pattern in adult patients with IM is characterized by a dramatic increase of extensively activated CD8+ T cells,a moderate reduction of CD+19B cells and no significant change of CD4+T cells and CD+16/56NK cells.CAEBV is featured by an immunosuppression status as demonstrated by significantly decreased B,NK,CD4+T and CD8+T subsets.