title: Increased infiltration of intrahepatic DC subsets closely correlate with viral control and liver injury in immune active pediatric patients with chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: The roles of functionally impaired dendritic cells (DCs) in natural history of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) are unknown. We therefore characterized circulating DC subsets in 15 immune tolerant (IT) and 31 immune active (IA) HBV-infected children. Additionally, intrahepatic DC subsets were also analyzed in 4 IT and 9 IA individuals. The results showed that circulating DC subset numbers were decreased, but the intrahepatic DC counts were concomitantly increased in IA patients versus IT patients or healthy children. This results in the reduction of overall IFN-alpha but not IL-12 production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells of IA patients, although the capacity of single DC in producing cytokines was unchanged in these children. Moreover, there is a significantly inverse correlation of intrahepatic DC subsets with plasma HBV load and a positive correlation with serum ALT levels. These findings suggest that the increased infiltration of intrahepatic DC subsets may participate in the local antiviral immune response in pediatric patients with CHB.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Biological Therapy, Beijing Institute of Infectious Diseases, Beijing 302 Hospital, 100 Xi Si Huan Middle Road, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jinxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Hongfei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fu-Sheng
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000276:immunology*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D022423:Myeloid Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology