简介:Competent immune function is an important determinant of thenatural history of viral hepatitis as well as treatment response.Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is, in general, thought not to be cytopathic and the hepatic injury in patients with HBV infection is predominantly immune-related. However, it is well established that suppression of humoral and/or cellular immune function is detrimental in patients with chronic HBV infection. Although the pathogenesis of liver inflammation from hepatitis C virus (CV) infection is incompletely understood, abundant T cells aggregated in lymphoid infiltrates in portal areas are involved in the cytolysis of infected hepatocytes and fibrogenesis.