Immune phenotype of chronic liver disease.
Immune disorders in chronic liver disease may reflect common host propensities or disease-specific factors. Our aim was to determine the principal bases for these expressions. Four hundred fifty-one patients with various chronic liver diseases were assessed prospectively for concurrent immune disorders. Individuals with immune diseases were more frequently women (73% vs 60%, P = 0.02) and they had HLA DR4 more often than counterparts with other HLA (46% vs 23%, P = 0.000008). The association between HLA DR4 and immune disease was apparent within individual liver diseases and within different categories of liver disease. Women with HLA DR4 had a higher frequency of immune disease than women without HLA DR4 (52% vs 22%, P < or = 0.000001), and they also had immune diseases more commonly than DR4-positive men (52% vs 31%, P = 0.03). DR4-positive men, however, had higher frequencies of immune disease than DR4-negative men, especially in the nonimmune types of liver disease (26% vs 4%, P = 0.002). We conclude that HLA DR4 and female gender constitute an immune phenotype that is an important basis for autoimmune expression in chronic liver disease.
Czaja
A J
AJ
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
dos Santos
R M
RM
Porto
A
A
Santrach
P J
PJ
Moore
S B
SB
D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000150:complications; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors
D001323:Autoantibodies; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen