Abstract:

Objective〓〖WTBZ〗To investigate the correlation between the frequency of circulating natural killer cells (NK cells)and HLA-Cw alleles. 〖WTHZ〗Methods〓〖WTBZ〗30 patients with acute hepatitis B in nonage and 51 patients with chronic hepatitis B were included in the experimental groups， and 41 healthy individuals were enrolled as controls． Numbers of circulating NK cells and activated NK cell were analyzed by flow cytometry． HLA-Cw genotyping was conducted by the polymerase chain reaction sequence specific oligonucleotide (PCR-SSO) method. 〖WTHZ〗Results〓〖WTBZ〗Numbers of circulating NK cells and activated NK cell in acute hepatitis B patients were higher than in healthy subjects［(22.62±3.70)% vs (19.03±4.91)%, and (65.28±14.45)% vs (53.88±14.01)%, both P＜0.05］， however, those in patients with chronic hepatitis B were lower than in healthy subjects［(14.36±1.07)% vs (19.03±4.91)%, and (47.14±5.67)% vs (53.88±14.01)%, both P＜0.05］, there were statistically significant differences between the groups of chronic hepatitis B and acute hepatitis B（P＜0.01）. There was no statistical significance between the groups of acute hepatitis B and healthy subjects about HLA-Cw（P＞0.05. HLA-Cw*3 was more frequent in patients with chronic hepatitis B than in controls (P＜0.05)，　and there was a significantly negative correlation between the frequency of HLA-Cw*03 and the numbers of activated NK cell in the group of chronic hepatitis B（γ=-0.394, P＜ 0.05）. 〖WTHZ〗Conclusions〖WTBZ〗The function of NK cells in chronic hepatitis B is weak. The HLA-Cw*03 gene may affect the antiviral function of NK cells to induce the persistence of HBV infection.

Key words: Killer cells, Natural, Hepatitis B, chronic, Human leukocyte antigen, Genotype