Objective: To observe the therapeutic effect of autologous cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) on HBV DNA positive patients with liver cirrhosis.
Methods: HBV DNA positive 33 patients with cirrhosis were treated with CIK. Before and after cultured in vitro and post-treatment, CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3+CD56+ cells, mDC and pDC were detected by flow cytometry. The indexes of virus and liver function were compared between pre- and post-treatment.
Results: CD3+, CD3+CD8+ cells and CD3+CD56+ cells were higher after cultured in vitro and after transfused back than those before culture (91.5 +/- 10.3, 74.4 +/- 9.9 vs. 67.9 +/- 12.8; 60.9 +/- 15.5, 37.3 +/- 15.1 vs. 27.9 +/- 10.9; 18.4 +/- 11.7, 14.5 +/- 7.5 vs. 10.6 +/- 7.1). The percentages of mDC and pDC also increased after-treatment vs. pre-treatment (0.54 +/- 0.18 vs. 0.70 +/- 0.29; 0.26 +/- 0.13 vs. 0.41 +/- 0.25). HBV DNA became undetectable in 12 patients and decrease exceeded 100 times in 4 patients after treatment. HBeAg became undetectable in 10 of 14 patients who were HBeAg positive pretreatment patients, among them 2 patients had HBeAb sero conversion. The liver function was improved after treatment. All patients tolerated the treatment.
Conclusion: CIK treatment can increase immune effector cells and has some antiviral effect and is safe.