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Viral hepatitis

'Immune tolerance' in HBV infection: danger lurks

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 13, pages 627–628 (2016)Cite this article

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The first phase of chronic hepatitis B, the immune tolerance phase, is traditionally considered to be a quiescent stage of disease. Emerging data now suggests the contrary, with immunological, pathological and virological evidence supporting an underlying active disease, signifying the need to consider earlier treatment commencement.

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Figure 1: Changing concepts of immune tolerance in chronic hepatitis B.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong,

    Wai-Kay Seto & Man-Fung Yuen

  2. State Key Laboratory for Liver Research, University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, 102 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

    Wai-Kay Seto & Man-Fung Yuen

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  1. Wai-Kay Seto
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  2. Man-Fung Yuen
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Correspondence to Man-Fung Yuen.

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Competing interests

W.-K.S. is an advisory board member of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, and has received speaker fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences and Novartis. M.-F.Y. has received speaker fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, and has received research funding from and is an advisory board member of Biocartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences and Novartis.

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Seto, WK., Yuen, MF. 'Immune tolerance' in HBV infection: danger lurks. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13, 627–628 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2016.145

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