Elevated levels of serum soluble E-selectin in patients with chronic hepatitis B: Correlation with T lymphocyte subsets, NK cells and liver inflammation.
BACKGROUND
It has been reported that serum soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin) may be increased in some inflammatory liver diseases. The purpose of our study was to investigate changes of sE-selectin, T lymphocyte subsets, natural killer (NK) cells, and HBV load in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), analyze the relationship between them, and discuss their significances.


METHODS
Fifty-four patients with chronic hepatitis B and fourteen controls were studied. Serum sE-selectin, T lymphocyte subsets, NK cells, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) load were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), flow cytometry (FCM), and fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR), respectively.


RESULTS
sE-selectin level in patients with CHB increased significantly than that in controls (p<0.01). The percentages of CD4 positive cells and NK cells decreased while the percentage of CD8 positive cells increased significantly in CHB patients than in controls (p<0.01, respectively). sE-selectin level significantly related to levels of T lymphocyte subsets, NK cells, serum alanine aminotransferase (sALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (sAST) (p<0.01, respectively), but had no relationship with HBV level.


CONCLUSIONS
The sE-selectin levels in patients with chronic hepatitis B increase significantly and correlate to liver inflammation, suggesting that sE-selectin can be considered as an additional useful marker of CHB inflammatory activity, and E-selectin may play part of role in pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B.
Yan
Ming-Xian
MX
Department of Gastroenterology, Shandong University School of Clinical Medicine, Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital, Ji’nan 250014, Shandong Province, China; Department of Gastroenterology, Shandong University Qilu Hospital, Ji’nan, Shandong Province, China.
Mao
Hai-Ting
HT
Liu
Qian
Q
Wang
Wen-Qi
WQ
Li
Yan-Qing
YQ