Effect of prostaglandin E1 on the dendritic cells maturation and the activity of CD4+/CD8+ T cells in chronic severe hepatitis B patients

Objective To study the maturation of dendritic cells and the activity of CD4+/CD8+T cells after prostaglandin E1 treatment in chronic severe hepatitis B patients.Methods PBMC were isolated from fresh peripheral blood of chronic severe hepatitis B patients by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation and cultured with plastic-adherence method.Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin-4 with or without prostaglandin E1 were used to induce the PBMC to obtain dendritic cells for 8 days.FACS was used to analyze the expression of the DC surface markers, including human leukocyte antigen (HLA-DR) , CD83, CD86.The secretion of IFN-γ, IL-12p70 was detected by ELISA.Some of the non-adherent cells were used to analyze the ratio of CD4+/CD8+T cells and the expression of CD69 and HLA-DR, the others were incubated with IL-2 for analyzing the cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity.Results Although prostaglandin E1 had no effects on the activity of CD4+/CD8+T cells in chronic severe hepatitis B patients, it could decrease the expression of CD4+/CD8+T cells activators, such as CD69 and HLA-DR.Further more, compared with the non-prostaglandin E1 control group, prostaglandin E1could down-regulate the expression of the surface markers on dendritic cells, including HLA-DR, CD83 and CD86, and inhibit the secretion of IL-12p70.In addition, prostaglandin E1 could inhibit the cytotoxic activity of the T lymphocyte in vitro.Conclusion Prostaglandin E1 inhibited the activation of CD4+/CD8+T cells, the maturation of dendritic cells and the cytotoxic activity of T lymphocytes.