Serum cytokine/chemokine profiles in acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B: Clinical and mechanistic implications

Background and Aims Acute exacerbation (AE) of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is common and negatively impacts the clinical outcome. Although upsurge of viral load always precedes or coincides with AE, the underlying immunological mechanisms remain unclear and were investigated. Methods We prospectively followed the serum cytokine/chemokine profiles, viral load, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels in 250 patients and identified 44 consecutive patients (male: 72.7%; age: 40.4 ± 9.7 years; hepatitis B e antigen [HBeAg] positivity: 63.6%; genotype B/C: 75%/25%) who developed AE during the follow‐up in a medical center. The impact of clinical characteristics (age, gender, HBeAg, ALT, HBV genotype), cytokines (tumor necrosis factor‐alpha, interferon gamma, interleukin [IL]‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, and IL‐10), and chemokines (CXCL10/interferon gamma‐induced protein [IP]‐10, CCL2/MCP‐1, CXCL9/MIG, CCL5/RANTES, and CXCL8/IL‐8) on the serum HBV DNA dynamics at different time points (baseline, peak of serum HBV DNA level, peak of serum ALT level, and after AE) were analyzed. Results Of 44 patients, serum HBV DNA level surged before the peak of serum ALT level in 23 (52.3%), and coincided with the peak of ALT in 21 (47.7%). The upsurge of serum viral load significantly correlated with the increase of IL‐10 (P = 0.0037) and CXCL10/IP‐10 (P = 0.0044). Upsurge of serum viral load was preceded by an increase in serum IL‐4 (P