The major novel aspect of this study was the analysis of tetramer+ populations at early time-points after HCV infection, and most importantly, longitudinal analysis of the fate of these virus-specific populations in patients with a different clinical outcome of acute hepatitis C. The data clearly show that regardless of the long term clinical outcome, CD4+ T cells specific for this immunodominant epitope are present in all patients with acute disease. The gene discussed is CD4; the disease is hepatitis C virus infection.