Subpopulation composition of blood T-killers in patients with hepatitis C with genotype 1 or 3

Introduction. Despite great attention to the pathogenesis of chronic viral hepatitis C (CVHC), many aspects of the immune response in this pathology remain unclear.
Aim. To study the subpopulation composition of blood cytotoxic T cells by flow cytometry, depending on the severity of clinical and morphological manifestations of CVHC with genotype 1 or 3.
Materials and methods. Clinical, laboratory examinations, determination of liver fibrosis by elastometry using the METAVIR scale and study of the subpopulation composition of cytotoxic T cells in the blood were carried out in 144 patients with CVHC, including 74 patients with genotype 1 and 70 individuals with genotype 3, and in 20 people of the control group. The study of the subpopulation composition of cytotoxic T cells in the blood was carried out on a flow cytometer Navios (Beckman Coulter, USA) with the determination of CD3, CD8, CD45R0 and CD62L markers.
Results. Changes in the subpopulation composition of blood cytotoxic T cells were more associated with the severity of liver fibrosis in patients with 1 and 3 genotypes of CVHC, than with inflammatory activity and viral load. In patients with CVHC genotype 3, a marked decrease in the content of TEMRA T-cytotoxic cells (CD3⁺ CD8⁺ CD45R0^–CD62L^–) and effector memory T-cytotoxic cells (CD3⁺ CD8⁺ CD45R0⁺ CD62L^–) was registered in patients with METAVIR liver fibrosis stage F3-F4 in comparison with persons with METAVIR liver fibrosis stage F0-F1 (Kruskal-Wallis test, respectively, p = 0.02 and p = 0.04 In persons with CVHC genotype 1, similar associations were expressed to a lesser extent.
Conclusion. We obtained an association of deterioration in the indices of the blood cytotoxic T cells subpopulation in patients with CVHC with an increase in the severity of liver fibrosis, which had some differences in patients with genotypes 1 and 3.

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