Figure 4.

Course of HBV infections, peripheral CD4⁺ T cell responses against HBV core protein, and intrahepatic CD8⁺ T cell responses in chimpanzees with or without CD4 immunodepletion as described in Asabe et al [21]. Serum HBV DNA levels are shown as a black line and sALT as a yellow shaded area. Horizontal bars represent serum HBe and HBs antigen levels and the open horizontal bars represent the presence of anti-HBc, anti-HBe, and anti-HBs antibodies. The amount of each protein is reflected by the thickness of each bar as indicated in the legend. The numbers of CD4⁺ T cells per μL of whole blood were shown as closed squares (top panel, right axis). Arrows on the top panels represent injections of control antibody (a) or anti-CD4 antibody (b). Peripheral CD4⁺ T cell IFNγ ELISPOT assays against HBV core protein (second panel) and detection of intrahepatic HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells (bottom panel, left axis) were as described in Figure 3 except that freshly prepared cells were used instead of using cryopreserved cells. Fold induction of intrahepatic CD8 mRNA compared to two preinoculation time points is shown as a shaded red area (bottom panel, right axis). *: tested and negative. Reproduced/amended with permission from American Society for Microbiology from Journal of Virology, 2009, vol 83, pp. 9652–62, DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00867-09.