Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 1;9(1):14118. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50729-5.
Soluble immune markers in the different phases of chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
Wiegand SB1,2, Beggel B3, Wranke A1,2, Aliabadi E1,2, Jaroszewicz J4, Xu CJ1,5, Li Y5,6, Manns MP1, Lengauer T2,7, Wedemeyer H1,2,8, Kraft ARM1,2, Falk CS2,9, Cornberg M10,11,12,13.
Author information
1
Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
2
German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany.
3
University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
4
Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
5
Centre for individualized infection medicine (CIIM), Hannover, Germany.
6
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
7
Department of Computational Biology and Applied Algorithmics, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarland Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany.
8
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
9
Institute of Transplant Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
10
Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany. [email protected].
11
German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner-site, Hannover, Braunschweig, Germany. [email protected].
12
Centre for individualized infection medicine (CIIM), Hannover, Germany. [email protected].
13
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany. [email protected].
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.