Non-organ-specific autoantibodies in chronic hepatitis C patients: association with histological activity and fibrosis.
BACKGROUND
Non-organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSAs) are frequently found in the sera of patients with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection. However, no conclusive answers have been produced concerning the clinical relevance of these antibodies.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether a relationship might exist between the presence of NOSA and the severity of liver disease in chronic hepatitis C.


METHODS
186 treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis C patients were studied consecutively for autoantibodies. Liver biopsies were analyzed according to the Metavir score.


RESULTS
NOSAs were present in 75 patients (40%). Anti-nuclear antibodies were found in 32% of patients (speckled pattern), anti-smooth muscle in 15% without F-actin specificity, anti-mitochondria in 0.5%, and anti-LKM1 in 0.5%, respectively. No liver-cytosol1 or soluble liver antigen antibodies were detected. There was a highly significant correlation between the positivity of NOSA and the degree of inflammation and hepatocellular injury (p = 0.001) and also with the degree of fibrosis (p < 0.0001). The presence of NOSA was associated with higher aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase, gamma-globulin and immunoglobulin G levels. By contrast, no differences were observed regarding age, gender, route of infection, duration of disease, HCV genotypes or viral load.


CONCLUSIONS
NOSAs were associated with the most severe forms of chronic HCV infections.
Chrétien
P
P
Laboratoire d'immunologie, Centre Hospitalier intercommunal de Créteil, 40 avenue de Verdun, 94010 Créteil Cédex, France. pascale.chretien@chicreteil.fr
Chousterman
M
M
Abd Alsamad
I
I
Ozenne
V
V
Rosa
I
I
Barrault
C
C
Lons
T
T
Hagège
H
H