The hepatitis B virus persists for decades after patients' recovery from acute viral hepatitis despite active maintenance of a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response.

It is widely believed that the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is completely cleared by antiviral antibodies and specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) during acute viral hepatitis. We now demonstrate that traces of HBV are often detectable in the blood for many years after clinical recovery from acute hepatitis, despite the presence of serum antibodies and HBV-specific CTLs, which can be present at acute-stage levels. The strength of the CTL response to HBV following clinical recovery correlates with persistence of HBV DNA. It is of particular interest that HBV-specific CTLs from patients studied up to 23 years after clinical and serological recovery expressed activation markers (HLA-DR, CD69) indicating recent contact with antigen. These results suggest that sterilizing immunity to HBV frequently fails to occur after recovery from acute hepatitis and that traces of virus can maintain the CTL response for decades following clinical recovery, apparently creating a negative feedback loop that keeps the virus under control, perhaps for life.