Increased percentage of peripheral blood activated cytotoxic T cell in patients with acute phase fulminant hepatitis.

The subsets of peripheral blood lymphocytes in 3 cases with acute type of the fulminant hepatitis (FH) were studied.The percentage of Leu 2a+15- cell and Leu 2a+ HLA-DR+ cell in the peripheral blood at the acute stage increased remarkably in death cases due to FH. In survival cases, increase of Leu 2a+15- cell was not noted, while increase of Leu 2a+ HLA-DR+ was noted. The increase of the percentage of these cells was also noted in the acute viral hepatitis type A (AVH), while ratio of Leu 2a+ HLA-DR+ cell/Leo 2a+15- cell was higher in FH than in AVH.These data suggest that activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes may play a role in the pathogenesis of FH.