Study of human B7 homolog 1 expression in patients with hepatitis B virus infection

Figure 5 Longitudinal analysis of serum hepatitis B surface antigen, alanine aminotransferase levels and human B7 homolog 1 expression in acute hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis B virus tolerance patients. A: In acute hepatitis B (AHB) patients, serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels decreased significantly from 404 ± 98.3 ng/mL at the 1st week to less than 30 ng/mL at the 16th week. In chronic hepatitis B virus tolerance (CHB-T) patients, serum HBsAg load remained more than 231 ± 38.6 ng/mL at the 16th week; B: In AHB patients, accompanied by a decrease in serum HBsAg level, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level decreased significantly from 346.5 ± 62.3 at the 1st week to 41.8 ± 82 at the 16th week; C: In AHB patients, followed by a decrease in serum HBsAg and ALT level, the percentage of B7 homolog 1 (B7-H1) positive cells decreased significantly from 25.7 ± 4.0 at the 1st week to 6.3 ± 1.37 at the 24th week. In CHB-T patients, B7-H1 expression levels were not increased significantly during the follow-up period; D: In AHB patients, positive correlation between B7-H1 expression on circulating CD11c + DCs and serum ALT levels was revealed by longitudinal correlation analysis (r = 0.902).