title: Accelerated development of alcoholic cirrhosis in patients with HLA-B8.
abstract: To test whether the increased prevalence of HLA-B8 reported in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis is due to the antigen being a genetic marker of susceptibility to liver damage from alcohol, patients who had cirrhosis of comparable clinical and histological severity were investigated for HLA-B8 status and cumulative alcohol intake. Both male and female cirrhotics with HLA-B8 had been drinking greater than 40 g alcohol/day for a shorter period of time (16.6 +/- 1.4 men, and 9.4 +/- 2.0 years, women) than their counterparts without this antigen (23.7 +/- 1.7, p less than 0.005, and 15.8 +/- 2.0 years, p less than 0.05, respectively), but the mean daily alcohol intake was similar whether patients had HLA-B8 or not. These results suggest that genetic determinants linked to HLA-B8 enhance the rate of development of liver damage in those who drink potentially hepatotoxic amounts of alcohol.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006519:Hepatitis, Alcoholic / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009336:Necrosis; D012306:Risk; D006113:United Kingdom; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens