[Clinical profiles of circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells in chronic hepatitis B patients in response to pegylated-interferon alfa-2a treatment].

Abstract To investigate the changes in circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) during the course of treatment with pegylated-interferon alfa-2s (peg-IFNa-2a) and to determine the correlations with therapeutic response. Forty-one patients with CHB who were receiving peg-IFNa-2a antiviral treatment for 48 weeks were enrolled in the study.Expression of the Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) on and frequency and functionality of the pDCs were analyzed at treatment weeks 0, 2, 12, 24, 36 and 48. All patients exhibited an initially rapid decrease in the numbers of circulating pDCs and showed CpG-induced endogenous IFNa production within the first 2 weeks of treatment.Subsequently, all responders displayed a continuous increase in pDC numbers as well as functionality, both of which peaked around week 12 of treatment; in addition, these treatment responses were accompanied by significantly increased levels of type 1 T helper cytokines (P less than 0.05), which did not occur in the non-responders. pDCs are involved in the initial therapeutic immune response stimulated by peg-IFNa-2a treatment.Recovery of blood pDC number and functionality may represent a predictor of favorable response to peg-IFNa-2a antiviral treatment in patients with CHB.