Involvement of the cytotoxic/suppressor T-cell subset in liver tissue injury of patients with acute and chronic liver diseases

So far, phenotypic and functional analyses of cytotoxic lymphocytes in viral hepatitis, as well as in primary biliary cirrhosis, have focused on circulating lymphocyte subpopulations, whereas their occurrence and distribution at the involved site, namely the liver, remain largely unknown. In the present study, monoclonal antibodies were used to characterize both circulating and liver-tissue-infiltrating lymphocyte subsets in acute cytomegalovirus hepatitis, in chronic B-virus hepatitis, and in primary biliary cirrhosis. Special emphasis was laid on the cytotoxic/suppressor T-cell subset. Total T cells were identified by the monoclonal antibody T411. The monoclonal antibody T811 was used to identify the cytotoxic/suppressor T-cell subset, which comprises virus-specific, altered self, and alloreactive cytolytic T lymphocytes and their precursors, a fraction of killer and natural killer cells. Furthermore, killer and natural killer cells were identified more specifically by the monoclonal antibody HNK1. Irrespective of the number of cytotoxic/ suppressor T cells in peripheral blood, these cells (T811 phenotype) were accumulated in the liver at the site of tissue injury. The preponderance of this lymphocyte subset at the site of tissue injury suggests an important role for these cells in the mechanism leading to tissue injury.