[Characteristics of peripheral blood lymphocyte immune subsets in patients with chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection].
OBJECTIVE
To study the characteristics of the peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in pediatric patients with chronic active EBV (CAEBV) infection.


METHODS
Flow cytometry was used to detect the peripheral blood NK, B, T lymphocyte subsets and the functional, regulatory, naïve, memory and activatory subsets of T lymphocytes in 10 pediatric patients with CAEBV infection, 13 pediatric patients with acute Epstein-Barr virus infection (AEBV) and 12 healthy children in our hospital between March 2004 and April 2008.


RESULTS
Compared with AEBV group, the number of white blood cells [3325 x 10(6)/L (median, just the same as the following)], lymphocytes (1078 x 10(6)/L), NK cells (68 x 10(6)/L), B cells (84 x 10(6)/L), total T cells (684 x 10(6)/L), CD4+ T cells (406 x 10(6)/L) and CD8+ T cells (295 x 10(6)/L) in CAEBV patients were lower (P<0.05). The functional subset of the CD4+ T cells in CAEBV group (94.5%) was lower than those of the healthy control group (98.7%) (P<0.05), but was still higher than those of AEBV group (74.0%) (P<0.05). While the functional subset of the CD8+ T cells in CAEBV (40.7%) was not dramatically different from the healthy control group (48.3%), but was still higher than that of AEBV group (21.0%) (P<0.05). Although the regulatory subset in CAEBV group (5.0%) was higher than the health control group (4.6%) (P<0.05), but lower than AEBV group (5.8%) (P<0.05). In CAEBV, the proportion of CD4+/CD8+ naïve T cells (32.3%/37.5%) was lower than that of normal group (58.3%/56.6%) (P<0.05), but the proportion of CD4+/CD8+ effective memory T cells in CAEBV group (23.9%/15.1%) was lower than that in AEBV group (36.5%/69.8%) (P<0.05), while the proportion of CD8+ fake naïve T cells in CAEBV (17.5%) was higher than the other 2 groups (P<0.05). The CD8+ activatory subset in CAEBV group (84.4%/34.0%) was higher than that of the healthy control group (44.1%/16.7%) (P<0.05), but still lower than AEBV group (96%/95%) (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
There is an imbalance in lymphocyte subsets and disturbance in cellular immunity in CAEBV patients, which may be associated with EBV chronic active infection. Detecting the peripheral haematologic parameters and lymphocyte subsets may be helpful in the diagnosis and the differential diagnosis of CAEBV.
Xing
Yan
Y
Department of Pediatrics, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
Song
Hong-mei
HM
Li
Tai-sheng
TS
Qiu
Zhi-feng
ZF
Wu
Xiao-yan
XY
Wang
Wei
W
Wei
Min
M
D000293:Adolescent; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male