Kong Fanyun, Feng Bo, Zhang Henghui, Rao Huiying, Wang Jianghua, Cong Xu, Wei Lai
Beijing Key Laboratory for Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Disease, Peking University People's Hospital, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Beijing 100044, P.R. China.
Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunity, Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
Exp Ther Med. 2017 Aug;14(2):1846-1852. doi: 10.3892/etm.2017.4682. Epub 2017 Jun 27.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with B cell abnormality; however the phenotypic profiles of immunoglobulin (Ig)M+B cell subsets in patients with HCV infection remain unclear. In the current study, the effect of HCV infection on IgM+B cell subsets was evaluated. The percentages, as well as the differentiation and activation features of peripheral IgM+B naive subsets [cluster of differentiation (CD)27-IgM+B cells] and IgM+B memory subsets (CD27+IgM+B cells) were assessed using flow cytometry in 27 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and 20 healthy controls (HCs). The frequency of CD27+IgM+B memory subsets detected in patients with CHC was significantly higher than that in HCs (P<0.05). Although the frequency of CD27-IgM+B naive subsets was similar in both groups, there was a significantly higher proportion of CD5+B cells detected in the CD27-IgM+B subsets of patients with CHC compared with HCs (P<0.05). Among CD27-IgM+B subsets, abnormal differentiation was associated with HCV infection, with significantly increased percentages of IgD+B cells and CD38+B cells in patients with CHC compared with HCs (P<0.05). In CD27+IgM+B memory subsets, the abnormality of cell differentiation was associated with a significantly increased percentage of CD38+B cells in patients with CHC compared with HCs (P<0.05). In addition, the percentage of activated CD27+IgM+B subsets in patients with CHC were significantly higher than those observed in HCs (P<0.05). The number of CD27-IgD+IgM+B, CD27-CD38+IgM+B and CD27+CD38+IgM+B cells were negatively correlated with HCV RNA in patients with CHC. These results suggest that HCV infection contributes to abnormalities in the percentage, differentiation and activation of IgM+B cell subsets and may disrupt the immune response mediated by IgM+B cells.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染与B细胞异常有关；然而，HCV感染患者中免疫球蛋白（Ig）M+B细胞亚群的表型特征仍不清楚。在本研究中，评估了HCV感染对IgM+B细胞亚群的影响。使用流式细胞术评估了27例慢性丙型肝炎（CHC）患者和20例健康对照（HC）外周血IgM+B幼稚亚群[分化簇（CD）27-IgM+B细胞]和IgM+B记忆亚群（CD27+IgM+B细胞）的百分比以及分化和活化特征。CHC患者中检测到的CD27+IgM+B记忆亚群的频率显著高于HC（P<0.05）。虽然两组中CD27-IgM+B幼稚亚群的频率相似，但与HC相比，CHC患者的CD27-IgM+B亚群中检测到的CD5+B细胞比例显著更高（P<0.05）。在CD27-IgM+B亚群中，异常分化与HCV感染有关，与HC相比，CHC患者中IgD+B细胞和CD38+B细胞的百分比显著增加（P<0.05）。在CD27+IgM+B记忆亚群中，细胞分化异常与CHC患者中CD38+B细胞的百分比显著增加有关（P<0.05）。此外，CHC患者中活化的CD27+IgM+B亚群的百分比显著高于HC（P<0.05）。CHC患者中CD27-IgD+IgM+B、CD27-CD38+IgM+B和CD27+CD38+IgM+B细胞的数量与HCV RNA呈负相关。这些结果表明，HCV感染导致IgM+B细胞亚群的百分比、分化和活化异常，并可能破坏由IgM+B细胞介导的免疫反应。
