title: Clinical feature of intrahepatic B-lymphocytes in chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: Humoral immunity constitutes major defense mechanism against viral infections. However, the association of hepatic injury and B-cells population in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers has not been studied well. In this study, fifty seven hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive and HBeAg negative patients were studied to determine the expression of CD20, a cell surface marker expressed on B-cells, in liver biopsy sections using immunohistochemistry. The patients' clinical data at the time of liver biopsy were acquired from their medical records. There was a significant association between log HBV DNA and both ALT (r = 0.36, P = 0.006) and histologic activity index (HAI) total score (r = 0.3, P = 0.02), respectively. The CD20 was expressed in all 57 liver biopsy samples with a submembranous and membranous staining pattern and its expression was significantly associated with HAI total score (r = 0.32, P = 0.01) and stage of fibrosis (r = 0.31, P = 0.02). The susceptible B lymphocytes to hepatitis B virus might be implicated in the development of immune mediated inflammation of HBV-induced hepatic injury. The present data also support that the liver is potentially one of the secondary lymphoid organs.
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0744-0634
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohamadkhani
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Elnaz
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Naderi
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sotoudeh
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Aezam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katoonizadeh
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghodratollah
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Montazeri
authors.affiliation: Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, Tehran 14117 13135, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4566-3628
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Poustchi