title: Autoantibodies to intermediate filaments in acute viral hepatitis A, B and non-A, non-B are directed against vimentin.
abstract: Using ELISA and immunoblotting, autoantibodies to vimentin were sought in sera from 10 patients with acute hepatitis A, 10 with acute hepatitis B, 13 with acute non-A, non-B hepatitis, 16 with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, 17 with cytomegalovirus infection and 40 from healthy persons. The ELISA results were expressed as a percentage of the value obtained with a monoclonal antibody to vimentin. The results (mean and SD) for acute hepatitis A (51.2 +/- 21.7%), acute hepatitis B (44.5 +/- 28.2%) and acute hepatitis non-A, non-B (43.0 +/- 16.4%) were significantly (p less than 0.01) higher than those for autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (20.5 +/- 7.7%), cytomegalovirus infection (25.9 +/- 12.2%) and healthy controls (16.8 +/- 9.3%). Immunoblotting showed that sera from patients with acute viral hepatitis reacted with 57 kd vimentin in triton-cytoskeletal extracts of fibroblasts. These results show that autoantibodies to vimentin are present in sera from patients with acute hepatitis A, B and non-A, non-B. Antivimentin autoantibodies may be useful in the diagnosis of acute non-A, non-B hepatitis.
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D003101:Collodion; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000276:immunology*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000276:immunology*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007382:Intermediate Filaments / Q000276:immunology*; D010209:Paper; D014746:Vimentin / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D014746:Vimentin; D003101:Collodion