Peripheral T-lymphocyte subpopulations in different clinical stages of chronic HBV infection correlate with HBV load

Figure 3 Mean percentages of CD3⁺, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cells in peripheral blood of patients at the immune-tolerant stage (A) and immune active stage (B). Patients were divided into two groups based upon the HBeAg status. The proportion of CD8⁺ T-cells was significantly higher in HBeAg positive patients than in HBeAg negative patients at the immune active stage (39.24 ± 8.05 vs 30.66 ± 8.01, P < 0.001). The percentage of CD4⁺ T-cells was significantly higher in HBeAg negative patients than in HBeAg positive patients at the immune active stage (33.60 ± 7.41 vs 27.39 ± 5.75, P < 0.001). Significant differences were found in CD3⁺ T-cells and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ ratio between HBeAg positive and negative patients (48.99 ± 11.06 vs 60.48 ± 11.22, 0.74 ± 0.25 vs 1.21 ± 0.50, P < 0.001). CD8⁺ T-cells were predominant compared with CD4⁺ T-cells in patients with a high HBeAg expression level, whereas CD4⁺ T-cells were predominant compared with CD8⁺ T-cells in patients with a low HBeAg expression level. In immune-tolerant-patients, no significant difference was observed in parameters of T-cell profile between HBeAg negative and positive patients (P > 0.05).