At the baseline , compared to healthy controls , CHB patients had a lower circulating CD8 T cell frequency ( 29.44 % 11.55 % vs 37.17 % 7.30 % , P = 0.03 ) and higher frequencies of programmed death 1 positive CD8 T cells ( PD-1 + CD8 T ) ( 16.48 % 10.82 % vs 7.02 % 3.62 % , P = 0.0001 ) and CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 + T regulatory cells ( Tregs ) ( 23.64 % 9.38 % vs 13.60 % 6.06 % , P = 0.001 ) .