Objective To study the mutual relationship between anti-HBx and IL-10, IL-12 or soluble Fas (sFas) in sera of patients with chronic HBV infection and to explore the importance of anti-HBx detection as well as its role in the development of chronic HBV infection. Methods Total of 90 cases with chronic HBV infection were randomly selected, including 10 of asymptomatic carriers (ASC), 28 of chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 26 of liver cirrhosis (LC) and 26 patients of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Their clinical data and blood samples were collected, and serum was prepared and stored at-73℃. Anti-HBx was detected with an indirect ELISA established in our earlier research, and levels of IL-10, IL-12 and Fas were determined with commercial double-antibody sandwich ELISA kits. The mutual relationship between anti-HBx and IL-10, IL-12 or sFas in serum were analyzed with the software SPSS 20.0. Results All levels of IL-10, IL-12 and sFas in peripheral blood showed a rising trend with development of chronic HBV infection. The levels of IL-10 in ASC, CHB, LC and HCC groups were13.93 ± 14.40 ng/L, 39.38 ± 20.77 ng/L, 69.06 ± 46.37 ng/L and 62.82 ± 23.42 ng/L, respectively, levels of IL-12 in the 4 groups were15.64 ± 23.04 ng/L, 68.50 ± 23.14 ng/L, 76.83 ± 12.82 ng/L and 83.74 ± 24.88 ng/L, respectively, and levels of sFas were 58.17 ± 77.42 ng/L, 179.88 ± 104.36 ng/L, 249.22 ± 107.80 ng/L and 252.98 ± 87.65 ng/L, respectively. Twenty-seven out of90 patients showed a positive result for anti-HBx detection, including 1 in ASC, 4 in CHB, 12 in LC and 10 in HCC group. The levels of IL-10, IL-12 and sFas were higher in anti-HBx pos-itive group than in negative group. Statistical analysis demonstrated signiifcant differences of IL-10 and IL-12 between the two groups (P < 0.05), but the differences of sFas had no statistical signiifcance (P = 0.094). ConclusionsAnti-HBx antibody is not protective, and is closely related to IL-10, IL-12 and sFas. It may be an important serum indicator for aggravation from chronic hepatitis B to liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with chronic HBV infection.

Formation of biofilm is a survival strategy for bacteria and fungi to adapt to their living environment, especially in the hostile environment. Under the protection of biofilm, microbial cells in biofilm become tolerant and resistant to antibiotics and the immune responses, which increases the difficulties for the clinical treatment of biofilm infections. Clinical and laboratory investigations demonstrated a perspicuous correlation between biofilm infection and medical foreign bodies or indwelling devices. Clinical observations and experimental studies indicated clearly that antibiotic treatment alone is in most cases insufficient to eradicate biofilm infections. Therefore, to effectively treat biofilm infections with currently available antibiotics and evaluate the outcomes become important and urgent for clinicians. The review summarizes the latest progress in treatment of clinical biofilm infections and scientific investigations, discusses the diagnosis and treatment of different biofilm infections and introduces the promising laboratory progress, which may contribute to prevention or cure of biofilm infections. We conclude that, an efficient treatment of biofilm infections needs a well-established multidisciplinary collaboration, which includes removal of the infected foreign bodies, selection of biofilm-active, sensitive and well-penetrating antibiotics, systemic or topical antibiotic administration in high dosage and combinations, and administration of anti-quorum sensing or biofilm dispersal agents.