Expression of dendritic cell subsets in patients with different stages of chronic HBV infection:a comparative analysis

Objective To investigate the changes in peripheral blood dendritic cell (DC) subsets in patients with different stages of hepatitis B virus (HBV) -associated disease and related clinical significance.Methods A total of 20 HBV carriers (HBV carrier group) , 20 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients (CHB group) , 20 hepatitis B cirrhosis patients (cirrhosis group) , and 20 primary liver cancer patients (liver cancer group) , all of whom had HBV-associated disease and were selected from Department of Hepatology, Longhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditiond Chinese Medicine, as well as 20 healthy volunteers (normal group) , were included in this study flow cytometry was used to measure the changes in DC subsets.Comparison between multiple groups using Druskal-Wallis H test and further comparison using of Wilcoxon Rant test.Results According to the results of myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) in patients with different types of HBV infection and normal population, there was a significant difference in the number of m DC between patients with different typers of HBV infection and normal population (χ2=33.629, P<0.001) , and the cirrhosis group and the liver cancer group had significantly lower numbers of mDCs in peripheral blood than the normal group, CHB group, and HBV carrier group (all P<0.05) .There was a significant difference in the number of pDC between patients with different types of HBV infection and normal population (χ2=13.602, P <0.009) , and the liver cancer group had a significantly lower number of pDCs in peripheral blood than the normal group, CHB group, and HBV carrier group (all P<0.05) .The cirrhosis group had a significantly lower number of pDCs in peripheral blood than the CHB group (P<0.05) .Conclusion There are significant differences in the expression of DC subsets between patients with different HBV-associated diseases, and the number of DCs may be used as a reference for evaluating disease progression and prognosis.