Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a life-threatening disease caused by HBV infection. Our previous work proved that activation of ERK1/2 and STAT3 signaling was involved in HBV tolerance. We herein investigated clinical significances of serum ERK1/2 and STAT3 proteins in CHB. Results showed that ERK1/2 and STAT3 were fluctuated with natural history of CHB. In addition, STAT3 was found to be positively correlated to the elevation of ALT, AST and GGT, while ERK1 was negatively correlated to decreases of TP and ALB. Also, there was a positive correlation between the anti-HBc antibody and ERK1, ERK2 or STAT3 in HBeAg-negative patients. Strikingly, serum ERK1 and ERK2 could reflect level of HBsAg-specific CD8⁺ T cells. A model composed with baseline ERK1 and ERK2 levels had a high accuracy to predict the effect of IFNα treatment. In conclusion, serum ERK1, ERK2 and STAT3 could serve as novel biomarkers in chronic HBV infections.

慢性乙型肝炎（CHB）是由HBV感染引起的威胁生命的疾病。我们以前的工作证明了ERK1 / 2和STAT3信号的激活与HBV耐受性有关。我们在本文中研究了CHB中血清ERK1 / 2和STAT3蛋白的临床意义。结果表明，ERK1 / 2和STAT3随CHB的自然病史而波动。另外，发现STAT3与ALT，AST和GGT的升高呈正相关，而ERK1与TP和ALB的降低呈负相关。此外，HBeAg阴性患者的抗HBc抗体与ERK1，ERK2或STAT3呈正相关。令人惊讶的是，血清ERK1和ERK2可以反映HBsAg特异性CD8 ^+的水平T细胞。由基线ERK1和ERK2水平组成的模型具有很高的预测IFNα治疗效果的准确性。总之，血清ERK1，ERK2和STAT3可作为慢性HBV感染的新型生物标志物。