Fig. 5.

Proteomic characterization of IT phase versus IC phase of chronic HBV infection.(A) Heatmap of serum proteomic profiles in IT and IC phase patients. (B) Volcano plot representing the up- or down-regulated protein abundance changes in the pooled serum between IT and IC groups (1.2-fold change threshold and P ​< ​0.05). (C) KEGG pathway analyses of the 50 differentially expressed proteins from the pooled serum were compared between IT and IC phase patients. (D) Heat map representation of differentially expressed proteins (fold change>1.4, P ​< ​0.05) between IT and IC phase patients. (E) EFNB2 and HRSP12 expression in healthy controls and patients from different phases of chronic HBV infection as assessed by ELISA. HC, healthy controls (black); IT, immune-tolerant phase (red); IA, immune reactive HBeAg-positive phase (blue); IC, inactive HBV carrier state phase (orange); ENH, HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B phase (green). Each circle represents an individual sample. Data are presented as the mean ​± ​SD. Unpaired t-test. ∗p ​< ​0.05, ∗∗p ​< ​0.01, ∗∗∗p ​< ​0.001, ∗∗∗∗p ​< ​0.0001. (F and G) Pearson correlation analysis between EFNB2 or HRSP12 levels and HBeAg, HBV DNA, or HBsAg levels in HBeAg-positive patients (IT plus IA, blue) or in all patients (IT plus IA plus IC plus ENH, red). Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and P value were shown.