B-cell activating factor as an immunological marker of disease outcome and treatment response in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Abstract

B-cell activating factor (BAFF), an important cytokine for B lymphocyte activation that implicated in the pathogenesis and disease progression chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. This study aimed at evaluating clinical correlation and prognostic role of plasma BAFF, BAFF receptor and related polymorphisms in patients with CHB undergoing pegylated interferon (peg-IFN) treatment and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study shown that BAFF levels were elevated during treatment but decreased to pre-treatment levels after peg-IFN cessation in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. Patients with HCC had significantly higher BAFF levels compared with the non-HCC group and healthy controls. Moreover, the frequency of rs9514828 CT+TT genotypes were higher distributed in patients with chronic HBV infection compared with healthy controls. In summary, low baseline BAFF was associated with treatment response to peg-IFN and high baseline BAFF levels showed clinical correlation in terms of disease severity and overall survival in HBV-related HCC patients. These data suggest that BAFF may play an essential role in predicting a treatment response and promoting tumor development and progression.