alpha-Interferon therapy in patients with chronic active hepatitis B: immunological profile.

The effect of interferon-alpha 2b (IFN) on viral markers, liver function and immunological parameters (CD3, CD4, CD8, B, NK, II-2 receptor and HLA-DR positive cells in blood and T cell proliferation) was studied in 9 patients with HBsAg(+), HBeAg(-) chronic active hepatitis (CAH). Three patients were HBV-DNA(+) and 6 also had complications of cirrhosis of the liver (LC). IFN was given at a dose of 2.

Immunohistological phenotyping of the stomach infiltrating lymphocytes in chronic gastritis.

Subsets of lymphocytes infiltrating the gastric mucosa were phenotyped by their surface antigens in biopsies of 30 patients with chronic gastritis (12 with superficial, 9 with atrophic gastritis and 9 with gastric atrophy) and 10 controls. Using direct and indirect immunofluorescent staining, monoclonal antibodies OKT3, OKT4, OKT8, OKB7, antiLeu11b and anti-IL-2 receptor were employed to detect T cell subsets, B cells, NK cells and activated cells. Most of the infiltrating lymphocytes were T cells expressing the CD4 phenotype.