Sex Differences in Spontaneous Degranulation Activity of Intrahepatic Natural Killer Cells during Chronic Hepatitis B: Association with Estradiol Levels

Abstract : Major sex differences are observed in the prevalence, intensity, and severity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Here, we investigated degranulation activity of circulating and intrahepatic natural killer (NK) cells from HBV and HCV chronically infected patients before any treatment (n = 125). The frequency of CD107 + NK cells in the female liver was significantly higher compared to that in males during chronic HBV infection (p = 0 002) and correlated with the plasma levels of estradiol (correlation coefficient r = 0 634; p < 0 0001). Our results clearly show sex differences in degranulation activity of intrahepatic NK cells of HBV-infected patients. This probably contributes to the ability of females to better deal with HBV disease.