title: Prevalence of autoantibodies in a Tunisian cohort of hepatitis C virus infected dialysis patients.
abstract: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the principal agent of viral chronic hepatitis. Cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma are the major complications of this chronic infection. In haemodialysis, HCV infection remains a very frequent problem. Several autoimmune phenomena have been described during this infection. Two hundred haemodialysis patients, all of them anti-HCV (+), were included in this study to evaluate the frequency of Anti-Nuclear Autoantibodies (ANA), anti-cardiolipine antibodies (ACL), anti-smooth muscle antibodies (ASMA), anti-mitochondria antibodies (AMA), anti-thyroperoxydase antibodies (ATPO) and Rheumatoid Factor (RF) comparing them to healthy controls. Sixty eight serums (34%) patients were positive to at least one of the auto-antibodies tested. The difference between patients and controls was statistically significant. These markers were dominated by RF of the IgM isotype and ACL of the IgG isotype. Nevertheless, the positivity of ANA, ASMA, AMA and ATPO was not statistically different comparing to the controls. In addition, an association between the presence of the auto-antibodies and the viral replication was found suggesting that HCV is responsible for inducing these autoimmune phenomena.
authors: Laboratory of Immunology, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia. drsfarimen@yahoo.fr
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Sfar
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Elbeldi
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Aouini
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Chiha
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Aouadi
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Ayed-Jendoubi
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Abderrahim
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Ben Abdallah
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Kheder
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Ayed
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Gorgi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017153:Antibodies, Anticardiolipin / Q000097:blood; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor / Q000097:blood; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D017153:Antibodies, Anticardiolipin; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; C051931:myasthenia gravis anti-skeletal muscle antibody; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor