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Objective: To study the effect of interferon -alpha therapy on the capacity of antigen presenting of peripheral blood dendritic cells from patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB)., Methods: The peripheral blood samples were obtained from 23 patients who were given interferon-alpha therapy just before treatment and after treatment for 4 months, respectively. The peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated and cultured, and recombinant human IL-4 and GM-CSF were added to the cultures. After cultured for 7 days, dendritic cells (DC) were harvested and then incubated with HBsAg for 3 hours, then mixed with autogenous PBMC and cocultured for additional 72 hours. Before ending the culiration, 7.4 x 10(4) Bq (3)H-TDR was added to the culture for 12 hours, and then all cells were collected and detected for cpm values. Eight healthy individuals were used as controls., Results: After treatment for 4 months with interferon-alpha, the proliferating level of DC markedly increased in posttreatent group when compared with that in the pretreatment group and the total number of DC proliferation averagely increased 2.8 times in the same culture condition. The capacity of antigen presenting of DC in the pretreatment group markedly decreased compared with that either in posttreatment group or in healthy group, respectively (P < 0.001), and there was no significant difference between the posttreatment group and the healthy group (P > 0.05). Both before and after treatment the capacities of DC antigen presenting in interferon-alpha complete responder group were significantly stronger than those in the nonresponder group (P < 0.01 and P < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the partial responder group and nonresponder one (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: The results indicate the capacity of antigen presenting of peripheral blood DC from CHB patients is dysfunctional. Interferon-alpha therapy may markedly improve the capacity. The potential of antigen presenting of DC in CHB patients may be closely correlated with the response to interferon-alpha therapy.