Differential CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responsiveness in hepatitis C virus infection

KM Chang, R Thimme, JJ Melpolder, D Oldach… - Hepatology, 2001 - Elsevier
This study was performed to compare the vigor and phenotype of virus-specific CD4+ and
CD8+ T-cell responses in patients with different virologic and clinical outcomes after
hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The results show that a vigorous and multispecific CD4+
proliferative T-cell response is maintained indefinitely after recovery from HCV infection
whereas it is weak and focused in persistently infected patients. In contrast, the HCV-specific
CD8+ T-cell response was quantitatively low in both groups despite the use of sensitive …