Objective To investigate the change in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets after the application of thymosin α1 in patients with decompensated hepatitis B cirrhosis, as well as the effect of thymosin α1 on immune function.Methods A total of 106 patients with decompensated hepatitis B cirrhosis who were admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from October 2015 to December 2016 were enrolled and randomly divided into control group and treatment group, with 53 patients in each group, and 20 healthy subjects who underwent physical examination were enrolled as healthy group.The patients in the control group were given comprehensive medical treatment, and those in the treatment group were given thymosin α1 in addition to the comprehensive medical treatment.Flow cytometry was used to measure peripheral blood CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+cells, CD4+/CD8+ratio, and percentages of CD19 cells and natural killer (NK) cells before treatment and after 12 weeks of treatment.Clinical symptoms, complications, and adverse events were observed.An analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups, and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between any two groups;the independent-samples t test or paired t-test was used for comparison between two groups.The chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups.Results Before treatment, the treatment group and the control group had significantly lower numbers of peripheral blood CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+cells, CD4+/CD8+ratio, and percentages of CD19 cells and NK cells than the healthy group (all P<0.05) .After 12 weeks of treatment, the treatment group showed significant increases in the numbers of CD3+and CD4+cells and CD4+/CD8+ratio (t=7.647, 7.851, and 4.384, all P<0.001) ;compared with the control group, the treatment group had significantly increased numbers of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+cells (t=5.051, 5.379, and 2.066, all P<0.05) and slightly increaseed CD4+/CD8+ratio and percentages of CD19 cells and NK cells (all P>0.05) .The adverse events during treatment included dizziness and headache, and there was no significant difference in the incidence rate of adverse events between the control group and the treatment group (χ2=1.039, P=0.308) .No patient experienced serious adverse events.Conclusion In patients with decompensated hepatitis B cirrhosis, thymosin α1 can significantly improve the imbalance of lymphocyte subsets and enhance their immune function.
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