Analysis of the relationship between peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and HCV RNA levels in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

We investigated the relationship between peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels in patients with hepatitis C. Samples from 69 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients and 20 healthy controls were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect HCV RNA and flow cytometry to determine the expression levels of CD3, CD4, and CD8 in lymphocytes. The percentage of CD4+ T cells (42.87 ± 6.11%) and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ (1.34 ± 0.25) in these patients were significantly lower than those in the healthy control group (49.55 ± 6.68%, 1.82 ± 0.11, respectively) (P < 0.01, P < 0.01), while the percentage of CD8+ T cells (32.78 ± 5.48%) was higher than that in the control group (27.35 ± 4.32%) (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the percentage of CD3+ T cells between the two groups (P > 0.05). With the increase in HCV RNA replication, the percentage of CD8+ T cells increased gradually, while the CD4+ T cell percentage and CD4/CD8 ratio decreased. The change in the percentage of T lymphocyte subsets may be one of the reasons for persistent HCV infection, and the high expression levels of HCV RNA might be the reason for the low frequency of CD4+ T lymphocytes in patients with chronic HCV.