Progression to advanced fibrosis in CHB is highly heterogeneous, with the duration of infection and phase of disease contributing to this process.36 When analysing patients with CHB by hepatitis B ‘e’ antigen (HBeAg) seropositivity, viraemia, or the extent of liver inflammation using serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) concentrations,36 we noted that CD69INTCD4+ T-cell frequencies correlated weakly with serum HBV DNA (figure 5C). Here, GPT is linked to infection.