Phenotypic analysis of monocytes and CD4+ T cells in hepatitis E patients with or without pregnancy

High mortality in pregnant women is a characteristic of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Role of monocytes/T cells in HEV infection during pregnancy is still unclear. We compared CD14+monocytes and CD4+T cells by flow-cytometry in hepatitis-E patients including 13 pregnant (Antenatal care, ANC), 25 non-ANC patients and respective controls (12 and 20). Non-ANC-patients showed significantly higher frequency of monocytes with increased expression of CD80, CD86 and HLA-DR than control individuals (p Healthy pregnancy was associated with increased frequency of monocytes with higher CD80 expression and lower levels of HLA-DR (p 0.05). Compared to respective controls, CD137+ and CD152+CD4+T cells were higher (p 0.05). We found higher and reduced levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines (IL12, TNFα, IL6 and IL8; miliplex-assay) in non-ANC and ANC-patients respectively. In conclusion, on contrary to the classical activation of CD14+monocytes in the non-ANC-patients, impaired response was evident in the ANC-patients while the CD4+T cell populations were similar in the patient groups.