Change of peripheral lymphocyte subsets and its relationship withbacterial infections in liver cirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Objective: To investigate the change of peripheral lymphocyte subsets in liver cirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis B virus （HBV） infection. Methods: Seventy-four patients with liver cirrhosis were included in our research and 20 healthy people were used as controls. Blood routine tests and lymphocyte subsets including CD⁴⁺ T cells,CD⁸⁺ T cells,B cells and NK cells were detected in all subjects. Results: The ratio of CD⁸⁺ T cells dropped but ratio of B cells rose in patients than that in controls. The numbers of CD⁸⁺ T cells and NK cells were lower but B cells were higher in patients than that in controls. The numbers of CD⁸⁺ T cells and CD⁴⁺ T cells were lower in infected group than that in uninfected group. Conclusions: The ratio and number of peripheral lymphocyte subsets in liver cirrhotic patients with HBV infection were significantly different from those in healthy people. Among the changes lower ratio and number of CD⁸⁺ T cells and higher ratio and number of B cells were significant. The liver cirrhotic patients who have lower absolute counts of CD⁴⁺ and CD⁸⁺ T cells were more susceptible to bacterial infections.