Abstract

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection may follow four different consecutive phases, which are defined by virology as well as biochemical markers and differ in terms of prognosis and need for antiviral treatment. Currently, host responses reflected by immune markers are not considered in this definition. We aimed to study soluble immune markers and their distribution in different phases of chronic HBV infection. In this cross-sectional retrospective study, we investigated a panel of 14 soluble immune markers (SIM) including CXCL10 in 333 patients with chronic HBV infection. In a small cohort of HBeAg positive patients we analyzed SIM before and after HBeAg seroconversion and compared seroconverters to patients with unknown outcome. Significant differences were documented in the levels of several SIM between the four phases of chronic HBV infection. The most pronounced difference among all investigated SIM was observed for CXCL10 concentrations with highest levels in patients with hepatitis. TGF-β and IL-17 revealed different levels between HBeAg negative patients. HBeAg positive patients with HBeAg seroconversion presented higher amounts of IL-12 before seroconversion compared to HBeAg positive patients with unknown follow up. SIM such as CXCL10 but also IL-12, TGF-β and IL-17 may be useful markers to further characterize the phase of chronic HBV infection.

Details

Title
Soluble immune markers in the different phases of chronic hepatitis B virus infection
Author
Wiegand, Steffen B 1 ; Beggel, Bastian 2 ; Wranke, Anika 1 ; Aliabadi, Elmira 1 ; Jaroszewicz, Jerzy 3 ; Cheng-Jian, Xu 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yang, Li 5 ; Manns, Michael P 6 ; Lengauer, Thomas 7 ; Wedemeyer, Heiner 8 ; Kraft, Anke R M 1 ; Falk, Christine S 9 ; Cornberg, Markus 10 

1  Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany 
2  University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern, Germany 
3  Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland 
4  Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Centre for individualized infection medicine (CIIM), Hannover, Germany 
5  Centre for individualized infection medicine (CIIM), Hannover, Germany; Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany 
6  Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany 
7  German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany; Department of Computational Biology and Applied Algorithmics, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarland Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany 
8  Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany 
9  German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany; Institute of Transplant Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany 
10  Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany; Centre for individualized infection medicine (CIIM), Hannover, Germany; Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Oct 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50729-5
ProQuest document ID
2299748856
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.