Peripheral Blood CD8⁺T Cells CCR5 Expression and Its Δ32 Mutation in Iranian Patients with Occult Hepatitis B Infections

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of the CCR5 and the Δ32 mutation in its gene on the CD8+ T cells in blood donors suffering from an occult hepatitis B infection (OBI). The studied population included 57 OBI HBsAg/anti-HBc+ patients with positive HBV-DNA. Flow cytometric analysis and Gap-PCR was performed to examine the expression of CCR5 on CD8+ T cells and CCR5-Δ32 mutations, respectively. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that the number of cells which simultaneously co-express CD8 and CCR5 are decreased significantly in patients; no OBI patients had CCR5-Δ32 mutations. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the expression of CCR5 on CD8+ T cells is defected in OBI patients. This may be directly related to the CCR5 gene defect (primary abnormality) or CCR5 expressing inducers (secondary abnormality), such as cytokines.