Fc Gamma RIIb Expression Levels in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Abstract Background: Fc gamma receptor IIb (FcγRIIb), is an important inhibitory receptor which plays a vital role in regulating various immunoresponse processes and pathogenesis of many infectious disease. The purpose of our research is to show the FcγRIIb expression in serum and liver biopsy specimen of hepatitis B virus (HBV) suffers and explore its association with chronic HBV infection.Methods: ELISA assay was adopted to identify the serum FcγRIIb levels in 119 HBV suffers and 24 healthy controls. The immunohistochemical method was then employed to identify FcγRIIb expression in the biopsy specimens of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The integrated optical density (IOD) value was measured to represent FcγRIIb expression levels.Results: The serum FcγRIIb levels were decreased in CHB patients compared to controls (P < 0.001). FcγRIIb levels in CHB patient group were remarkably lower than in HBV carrier group (P< 0.001). In addition, the serum FcγRIIb levels were negatively associated with AST and ALT (r=-0.3936，P=0.0063; r=-0.3459，P =0.0097 respectively). The IOD values of FcγRIIb expression in moderate CHB and severity CHB group were significantly lower (P=0.006, P<0.001, respectively). The FcγRIIb level tended to be lower with the pathological changes of hepatitis. Further, the correlation analysis revealed FcγRIIb had negative correlations with AST and ALT (r=-0.688，P=0.0016; r=-0.686，P=0.0017 respectively) but positively associated with platelet counts (r=0.6464，P=0.0038).Conclusions: FcγRIIb levels are significantly related to chronic HBV infection and progression of CHB. The change of FcγRIIb may affect the progression of liver inflammation and fibrosis in CHB patients