Proliferative response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to recombinant hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens in patients with HCV infection

• Published in: Kanzo Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 205 - 211
• Main Authors: ITO, Tetsufumi, KUROKOUCHI, Kazutaka, ARIMA, Keiji, MORITA, Tsubasa, NISHIOKA, Mikio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Hepatology 1993
• Subjects: cytotoxic T cell
• ISSN: 0451-4203; 1881-3593
• DOI: 10.2957/kanzo.34.205

The proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in responses to recombinant hepatitis C virus (HCV) core region antigen (rcoreAg), nonstructural 3 region antigen (rNS3Ag), and nonstructural 5 region antigen (rNS5Ag), were studied in patients with chronic HCV infection, and in control group. Significant proliferative responses of PBMC to all antigens were detected in patients when compared with the control group (p<0.01). After separated of CD4+ cells and CD8+ cells from PBMC taken from patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH-C), the proliferative responses to recombinant antigens were determined. The CD4- CD8+ PBMC responded to recombinant antigens, but not the CD8- CD4+ PBMC. The population of CD8+ CD11b- cells (cytotoxic T cell) was increased, when PBMC was stimulated for 96 hours by rNS3Ag. A correlation has been noticed in proliferation of PBMC to rNS3Ag and transamynase level in CAH-C (r=0.64). These results suggest that recombinant HCVAg specific lymphocytes (cytotoxic T cell) may contribute to liver damage in HCV infection.