Chronic infection with viral hepatitis affects half a billion individuals worldwide and can lead
to cirrhosis, cancer, and liver failure. Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer …

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections account for 57% of
cases of liver cirrhosis and 78% of cases of primary liver cancer worldwide and cause a …

The regulatory and effector functions of T cells are initiated by the binding of their cell-
surface T cell receptor (TCR) to peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex …

It has long been thought that clonal deletion efficiently removes almost all self-specific T
cells from the peripheral repertoire. We found that self-peptide MHC-specific CD8+ T cells in …

Since the identification of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) 20 years ago, much progress has been
made in our understanding of its life cycle and interaction with the host immune system …

Antigen-specific priming of human, naive T cells has been difficult to assess. Owing to the
low initial frequency in the naive cell pool of specific T cell precursors, such an analysis has …

Despite major advances in the understanding and treatment of hepatitis C, a preventive
vaccine remains elusive. The marked genetic diversity and multiple mechanisms of …

Over recent years, it has become increasingly accepted that virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+
T cell responses play a major role in outcome and pathogenesis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) …

Natural killer (NK) cells account for 25–50% of the total number of hepatic lymphocytes,
which implicates that NK cells play an important role in liver immunity. The frequencies of …

The majority of individuals who become acutely infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV)
develop chronic infection and suffer from progressive liver damage while approximately …