title: Autoantibodies to survivin in patients with chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. yagihashi@sapmed.ac.jp
authors.forename: Atsuhito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yagihashi
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asanuma
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; C107489:BIRC5 protein, human; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D000077022:Survivin