CD69 and Cirrhosis: Moreover, as we have previously shown that ascites from patients with decompensated cirrhosis contains a pro-inflammatory cytokine milieu,25 together with our observations that IL-12, IL-15, and IL-18 were able to induce a bystander phenotype of CD8+ T cells, we investigated whether these cytokine levels correlated with the frequency of CXCR6+CD69+ CD8+ T cells.