Viral infection parameters not nucleoside analogue itself correlates with host immunity in nucleoside analogue therapy for chronic hepatitis B

Figure 3 The relationship between the peripheral frequency of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T regulatory cells or programmed death 1 positive CD8 T cells and hepatitis B virus DNA or hepatitis B envelope antigen at different time points during therapy. A: Peripheral frequency of programmed death 1 positive CD8 T (PD-1+ CD8 T) cells in all chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients at different points during therapy; B: Peripheral frequency of T regulatory cell (Treg) in all CHB patients at different points during therapy; C: Relationship between the HBeAg level and the peripheral frequency of Treg cells in all CHB patients during therapy; D: Relationship between the HBeAg level and the peripheral frequency of PD-1+ CD8 T cells in all CHB patients during therapy; E: Relationship between the hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA level and the peripheral frequency of PD-1+ CD8 T cells in all CHB patients during therapy; F: Relationship between the HBV DNA level and the peripheral frequency of Treg cells in all CHB patients during therapy. The X-axis shows the different time points during treatment, the left Y-axis shows the HBV DNA or HBeAg levels, and the right Y-axis shows the frequency of Treg cells or PD-1+ CD8 T cells. In the CHB patients, the HBeAg and HBV DNA levels start declining after treatment week 4, along with a decline in FoxP3+ Treg and PD-1+ CD8 T cells. ^aP < 0.05; ^bP < 0.01.