Hepatocyte necrosis associated with HBV marker expression and T cytotoxic cells in situ in chronic hepatitis B

To explore the role of HBV antigen expression and monocyte infiltrale in situ in chronic hepatitis, HBV markers and compositions and number of monocytes in the liver of chronic hepatitis B were immunohistochemically located and identified, and correlated with hepatocyle necrosis. It was found thai hepatic necrosis frequently took place in the centre or boundary of membranous HBsAg and/or HBcAg expression and the majority of monocytes accumulated in the necrotic areas showed CD₈ ⁺ cell token in HBeAg-positive stage of chronic active hepatitis. On the other hand, with HBeAg positivity converted into HBeAg-negativily or anti-HBe-positivily, HBV antigen expression significantly declined, CD₄ ⁺ cells remarkably increased as compared to HBeAg-positive status. These findings suggest that there may be distinct pathogenesis of hepatic necrosis in different stages of chronic HBV infection.