| Abstract: | To explore the cellular immune function in patients with hepatitis C and study the HCV pathogenic mechanism and immune protection effect against HCV infection in host. PBMC proliferative responses in vitro to HCV synthetic peptides (Cp9, Ns4) and recombinant HCV proteins (C,E1 ,E2 ,NS3) were evaluated in 21 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 3 patients with acute hepatitis C. Phenotypic characteristics of proliferating cells in PBMC were detected by FACS after PBMC were stimulated with HCV antigens. Results showed that lymphoproliferative responses of PBMC from patients with hepatitis C to synthetic peptides (Cp9, NS4) and rccombinant proteins (C,E1 ,E2 and NS3) were detected and its stimulation index(SI) were 1.69±0.51, 1. 61±0.54, 1. 68±0.58,1. 49±0.44, 1.44±0.44 and 1. 33±0. 33 respectively. Two out of three patients with acute hepatitis C had efficient lymphoproliferative response to HCV antigens (SI≥2. 1) and their serum HCV-RNA were seroconversion and serum ALT values were returned to normal when studied. Phenotype analysis showed that phenotypic characteristics of proliferating cells was CD4+ lymphocytes and CD8+ lymphocytes proliferative responses was less than that of CD4+ lymphocytes. The results indicate that PBMC from patients with hepatitis C exist proliferative responses to different HCV antigens. CD4+ lymphocytes proliferative response is greater than that of CD8+ lymphocytes. The efficient lymphoproliferative responses to HCV antigens in patients with acute hepatitis C suggests that the patients possibly have a good clinical prognosis. |
