干扰素在慢性乙型肝炎患者外周血树突状细胞分泌IL-12中的作用

To investigate the effect of interferon-α (IFN-α) therapy on the production of IL-12 secreted by peripheral blood dendritic cells in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) . The PBMCs samples were isolated from 23 patients just before and after IFN-α treatment and cultured with rhIL-4 and rhGM-CSF for 10 days, respectively. The supernatants were collected and the levels of IL-12 were detected with ELISA. 8 healthy individuals were regarded as controls. The results showed that the level of IL-12 was significantly lower in IFN-α pretreatment group than that in control group (P<0.01) . After treatment for 4 months, the IL-12 level markedly increased compared with the in level pretreatment group (P<0.05) . Furthermore the significantly elevated level of IL-12 in posttreatment groups could only be observed in complete responder group (P<0.01) . The study indicates that DCs secrete low production of IL-12 in CHB patients. IFN-α therapy can promote DCs to secrete IL-12, and its secreting level may related to the antiviral efficacy of IFN-α.