Dual colour fluorescein analysis of peripheral blood T cells in auto-immune chronic active hepatitis.
Both CD4 and CD8 T cells are subdivided into two phenotypically distinct sublineages via another two T cell markers, Leu-8 and CD11b antigens. The proportions of these four T cell subsets, CD4+Leu8+, CD4+Leu8-, CD8+11b+ and CD8+11b-, were studied in patients with auto-immune chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and compared with disease controls (hepatitis B surface antigen positive chronic active hepatitis) and healthy controls. We found that the proportion of CD4+Leu8+ cells was significantly reduced compared with controls (P less than 0.01), whereas those of the other cells were almost identical in all 3 groups. The absolute number of these CD4+Leu8+ cells was also lower than that of controls (P less than 0.01). Thus, the present study suggests that a reduced number of CD4+Leu8+ cells is associated with the aberrant immune response in auto-immune CAH.
Division of Medicine, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
T
T
Katoh
K
K
Yamauchi
N
N
Hayashi
H
H
Obata
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000097:blood*; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005452:Fluoresceins; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000097:blood; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008875:Middle Aged; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000473:pathology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000473:pathology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000473:pathology; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000473:pathology
D005452:Fluoresceins