FIG. 6.

Core-specific CD8⁺ T-cell responses in the peripheral blood of HCV-positive patients undergoing treatment with IFN-α plus ribavirin. PBMCs from 16 HCV-positive patients treated with interferon-α plus ribavirin and from 5 HBV-positive, HCV-negative patients were isolated, and intracellular IFN-γ assays were performed to determine the percentage of core-specific T cells in the peripheral blood. The mean value for HCV patients was 4.328 ± 3.23, and that for HBV patients was 1.626 ± 1.00 (P = 0.002). A generalized estimating equation was used to evaluate the difference.