Abstract: Objective To investigate potential correlation between frequency of peripheral blood invariant nature killer T（iNKT）cell,expression of activation markers CD38 or HLA-DRand severity of hepatic injury in patients with hepatitis Bvirus（HBV）-related liver cirrhosis（LC）. Methods Frequency of peripheral blood iNKTcells and expression of CD38 or HLA-DRMolecules were detected by flow cyto metry to analyze their correlations with Child-Pugh score,Model of end-stage liver disease（MELD）score and seru Mbiochemical parameters for liver function in HBV-related LCpatients. comparison and correlation analysis between the two groups were performed by Mann-Whitney Utest and Spearman rank test,respectively. Results When compared to healthy controls,LCpatients displayed significantly lower frequency of iNKTcells and proportion of CD4^-iNKTcells（0.106％,P=0.026;31.2％,P<0.01）,w hile higher proportion of CD4⁺iNKTcells（66.7％,P<0.01）,higher expression of CD38 and HLA-DRMolecules on iNKT,CD4⁺iNKTand CD4^-iNKTcells（14.2％,24.9％,18.8％,19.1％,18.4％,36.9％respectively,P<0.05）,respectively. However there was no statistically different expression of CD38 and HLA-DRam ong different Child-Pugh score. Mean w hile,expression of CD38 and HLA-DRon CD4⁺iNKTcells was negatively correlated with albu min level（r=-0.496,P=0.019;r=-0.501,P=0.018）. Conclusion compared to those in healthy controls,peripheral blood iNKTcells in LCpatients manifested significantly lower frequency,but higher cellular activation level which was associated with aggravation of hepatic injury.In another word,iNKTcells might play a role in the pathogenesis of liver injury in LCpatients.

Key words: iNKTcell, CD4⁺iNKTcell, CD4^-iNKTcell, Liver cirrhosis