Department of Gastroenterology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Hepatol Res. 2009 Mar;39(3):256-65. doi: 10.1111/j.1872-034X.2008.00459.x. Epub 2008 Nov 5.
We investigated the relationship between the magnitude of comprehensive hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses and the clinical course of acute HCV infection.
Six consecutive patients with acute HCV infection were studied. Analysis of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses was performed using an interferon-gamma-based enzyme-linked immunospot assay using peripheral CD8(+) T-cells, monocytes and 297 20-mer synthetic peptides overlapping by 10 residues and spanning the entire HCV sequence of genotype 1b.
Five patients presented detectable HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses against a single and different peptide, whereas 1 patient showed responses against three different peptides. Neither the magnitude of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses nor the severity of hepatitis predicts the outcome of acute hepatitis. The maximum number of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cells correlated with maximum serum alanine aminotransferase level during the course (r = 0.841, P = 0.036).
HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses were detectable in all 6 patients with acute HCV infection, and 6 novel HCV-specific CTL epitopes were identified. Acute HCV infection can resolve with detectable HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses, but without development of antibody against HCV.
我们研究了丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答的幅度与急性 HCV 感染临床过程之间的关系。
对 6 例连续发生的急性 HCV 感染患者进行了研究。采用干扰素-γ酶联免疫斑点试验，用外周血 CD8(+) T 细胞、单核细胞和 297 个重叠 10 个残基、覆盖 HCV 1b 基因型全长的 20 肽合成肽，对 HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答进行了分析。
5 例患者对单一和不同的肽产生了可检测到的 HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答，而 1 例患者对 3 种不同的肽产生了应答。HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答的幅度和肝炎的严重程度均不能预测急性肝炎的结局。在病程中，HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞的最大数量与血清丙氨酸氨基转移酶的最高水平相关（r = 0.841，P = 0.036）。
在 6 例急性 HCV 感染患者中均检测到 HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答，并且鉴定出 6 个新的 HCV 特异性 CTL 表位。急性 HCV 感染可通过检测到 HCV 特异性 CD8(+) T 细胞应答而痊愈，而无需产生抗 HCV 抗体。
