Autoantibodies to survivin in patients with chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens including survivin have been detected in sera from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, little is known about autoantibody responses to tumor-associated antigens in patients with chronic hepatitis, which strongly predisposes to development of HCC.


METHODS
We subjected sera from 57 patients with chronic hepatitis and 29 patients with HCC to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a full-length recombinant survivin protein. A cutoff value for positivity was determined as the mean absorbance +2SD for sera from healthy volunteers.


RESULTS
In patients with chronic viral hepatitis, elevated anti-survivin antibodies were detected in 10 of 57 sera (17.5%); in HCC patients, such elevation were detected in 7 of 29 sera (24.1%). The levels of anti-survivin antibodies in HCC patients with HCV infection were significantly higher than those in the healthy control and HCC patients with HBV infection. However, there were no significant differences in the levels of anti-survivin antibodies between HCV and HCC patients with HCV infection.


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that elevated anti-survivin antibodies were detected for the first time in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. The results suggest that the levels of anti-survivin antibodies have no association with the progression of HCV or HBV to HCC.
Yagihashi
Atsuhito
A
Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. yagihashi@sapmed.ac.jp
Asanuma
Koichi
K
Kobayashi
Daisuke
D
Tsuji
Naoki
N
Torigoe
Toshihiko
T
Sato
Noriyuki
N
Watanabe
Naoki
N
D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000276:immunology; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000276:immunology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D000077022:Survivin
D001323:Autoantibodies; C107489:BIRC5 protein, human; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D000077022:Survivin