Two-color flow cytometry of intraepatic lymphocyte subsets from patients with chronic hepatitis

Abstract

Peripheral and intrahepatic lymphocyte subsets were analyzed in 22 patients with chronic hepatitis by two-color flow cytometry. Activated T cells in the liver had significantly increased compared with those in the peripheral blood. There were significantly more activated T cells in the livers of the patients whose ALT levels were more than 200U/L than in those whose ALT levels were less than 200U/L during the one month before liver biopsy. Helper T cells had increased, but the CD4⁺cells had decreased due to a marked decrease of suppressor inducer T cells. CD8⁺ cells had increased due to a increase of both cytotoxic and suppressor T cells. Fc receptor positive cells, which had increased significantly, were not NK cells but Fc receptor-bearing T cells. In comparison with ordinary immunohistochemical methods, flow cytometric analysis enables more objective quantitation and simpler two-color staining of intrahepatic lymphocyte subsets.