Department of Environmental Health, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
J Med Virol. 2020 Jan;92(1):62-70. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25585. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
T follicular helper (TFH) cells, a critical subset of CD4 T cells, provide help to B cells during the procession of the humoral immune response in the germinal center (GC) and extrafollicular sites. CXCR5 CD4 T cells in human circulating blood, referred to herein as peripheral TFH (pTFH) cells, share phenotypes and functional properties with TFH cells in GC. Hepatitis B vaccine protects about 60% of the chronic hepatitis C patients from hepatitis B. The immunological bases that lead to the induction of protective antibody response is not well understood. In the present study, the pTFH cells subsets were determined in 18 healthy controls (anti-HBs ≥ 100 mIU/mL; HC), 21 nonresponders (anti-HBs < 10 mIU/mL; NR), and 23 weak responders (10 mIU/mL ≤ anti-HBs < 100 mIU/mL; WR) of chronic hepatitis patients upon routine hepatitis B vaccination. Though the frequency of the pTFH cell was equivalent in HC, WR, and NR, ICOS pTFH cells in HC underwent expansion with increased IL-21 secretion and production of serum anti-HBs response at 4 weeks after a full course of hepatitis B vaccination. These changes were not shown in both NR and WR. Analysis of ICOS pTFH cells represents a novel cellular determinant of the hepatitis B vaccine-induced humoral immune response, which may have relevance for design of hepatitis B vaccine.
滤泡辅助 T 细胞（TFH）是 CD4 T 细胞的一个关键亚群，在生发中心（GC）和滤泡外部位的体液免疫反应过程中为 B 细胞提供帮助。人类循环血液中的 CXCR5 CD4 T 细胞，本文称为外周 TFH（pTFH）细胞，与 GC 中的 TFH 细胞具有相似的表型和功能特性。乙型肝炎疫苗可使约 60%的慢性丙型肝炎患者免受乙型肝炎的侵害。但导致保护性抗体反应诱导的免疫基础尚未得到很好的理解。在本研究中，在 18 名乙型肝炎表面抗体（抗-HBs）≥100 mIU/mL 的健康对照者（HC）、21 名无应答者（抗-HBs<10 mIU/mL；NR）和 23 名弱应答者（10 mIU/mL≤抗-HBs<100 mIU/mL；WR）中确定了 pTFH 细胞亚群。尽管 HC、WR 和 NR 中的 pTFH 细胞频率相当，但在 HC 中，ICOS pTFH 细胞在完成乙型肝炎疫苗接种全疗程后 4 周时经历了扩张，伴随着 IL-21 分泌增加和血清抗-HBs 反应的产生。NR 和 WR 中均未显示这些变化。ICOS pTFH 细胞的分析代表了乙型肝炎疫苗诱导的体液免疫反应的新型细胞决定因素，这可能与乙型肝炎疫苗的设计有关。
