Expression of Toll-like receptors 2 and 3 in liver tissue and its clinical significance in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Objective To investigate the correlation of the expression of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) in live tissue with the grade of liver inflammation and degree of liver fibrosis and related clinical significance in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) .Methods A total of 104 patients who were hospitalized in Department of Hepatology, The Third People' s Hospital of Guilin, from January 2013 to December 2016 and were diagnosed with CHB were enrolled.Liver biopsy was used to obtain liver tissue samples from CHB patients, and immunohistochemical staining of TLR2 and TLR3 was performed.Normal adjacent liver tissue samples collected from 10 patients with hepatic hemangioma were used as controls.The correlation of TLR2 and TLR3 with the grade of liver inflammation and degree of liver fibrosis was analyzed.The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison between multiple groups, Spearman correlation analysis was used to investigate correlation.Results There was no marked positive expression of TLR2 and TLR3 in the control group.There was weak expression of TLR2 in the liver tissue of CHB patients, and the expression of TLR21 was not correlated with the grade of liver inflammation or the degree of liver fibrosis (rs=-0.086 and-0.112, both P > 0.05) .There was strong expression of TLR3 in the liver tissue of CHB patients, and the expression of TLR3 was significantly positively correlated with the grade of liver inflammation (rs= 0.528, P <0.01) ; TLR3 also had a linear relationship with the grade of liver inflammation (χ2= 16.679, P < 0.01) .Conclusion TLR3 may be involved in the immune pathogenesis of CHB and the pathological process of liver fibrosis.