Tan Lei, Mo Zhishuo, Gan Weiqiang, Gao Zhiliang, Zhu Jianyun, Wu Zeqian
Department of Medical Ultrasonic, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Ann Med. 2025 Dec;57(1):2463569. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2025.2463569. Epub 2025 Feb 17.
B-cell may participate in the cellular immune process of hepatitis B antigen clearance. However, the function and specific mechanism of B-cell during interferon-pegylated interferon α-2a (Peg-IFN-α) treatment in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients have not yet been described.
A total of 150 CHB patients enrolled in this study, who received 48 weeks of Peg-IFN α treatment. The differentiation clusters CD19, CD24, CD27, CD38, CD40, and CD80 of B cell surface markers in CHB patients were detected by flow cytometry. Spearman correlation and Logistic regression analysis were performed for the analysis.
The clearance rate of HBsAg increased significantly with the duration of Peg-IFN-α treatment, reaching 32.2% by 48 weeks. During the Peg-IFN-α therapy, the frequency of B-cell and its subsets increased significantly. However, we did not observe any significant difference in the frequency of the B-cell and its subsets in patients with or without HBsAg clearance after 48 weeks Peg-IFN-α treatment. The change in HBsAg value was negatively related to the change in plasmablasts (CD19CD38) level before and after 48 weeks treatment ( = -0.326, = 0.006). Moreover, the results showed that HBsAg <288.70 IU/mL at baseline and HBsAg <58.05 IU/mL at 12 weeks were strong predictors of HBsAg clearance in patients with 48 weeks Peg-IFN-α treatment.
The remodeling of B cell subsets, especially plasmablasts (CD19CD38), during Peg-IFN-α treatment was closed associated with the clearance of hepatitis B antigen.
B细胞可能参与乙肝抗原清除的细胞免疫过程。然而，慢性乙型肝炎（CHB）患者在聚乙二醇化干扰素α-2a（Peg-IFN-α）治疗期间B细胞的功能及具体机制尚未见报道。
本研究共纳入150例接受48周Peg-IFNα治疗的CHB患者。采用流式细胞术检测CHB患者B细胞表面标志物分化簇CD19、CD24、CD27、CD38、CD40和CD80。进行Spearman相关性分析和Logistic回归分析。
随着Peg-IFN-α治疗时间的延长，HBsAg清除率显著提高，48周时达到32.2%。在Peg-IFN-α治疗期间，B细胞及其亚群的频率显著增加。然而，在48周Peg-IFN-α治疗后，有无HBsAg清除的患者中，B细胞及其亚群的频率未观察到显著差异。治疗48周前后，HBsAg值的变化与浆母细胞（CD19CD38）水平的变化呈负相关（r = -0.326，P = 0.006）。此外，结果显示，基线时HBsAg<288.70 IU/mL且12周时HBsAg<58.05 IU/mL是48周Peg-IFN-α治疗患者HBsAg清除的强预测指标。
Peg-IFN-α治疗期间B细胞亚群的重塑，尤其是浆母细胞（CD19CD38），与乙肝抗原的清除密切相关。
