title: Autoimmune features in metabolic liver disease: a single-center experience and review of the literature.
abstract: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the progressive phenotype of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease associated with the metabolic syndrome. The existence of autoimmune features in NASH has been reported, but its significance remains unclear. We herein report the autoantibody profile of 54 patients with histologically proven NASH and further determined the development of autoimmunity in three different murine NASH models (monosodium glutamate, CDAA (choline-deficient L-amino acid-defined), and TSOD (Tsumura Suzuki, Obese Diabetes)) at 48 weeks of age. Forty-eight percent (26/54) of NASH cases were positive for antinuclear (ANA) or antimitochondrial antibody and manifested histological signs of overlap with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis, respectively. These patients were significantly older (60 ± 10 versus 50 ± 16 years), more frequently women (81 % versus 43 %), and with more severe portal inflammatory infiltrate compared with patients without autoimmunity. In one third of mice, regardless of the model, we observed a marked lymphoid infiltrate with non-suppurative cholangitis, and several cases were ANA-positive, but none AMA-positive. Our data suggest that autoimmunity may share some pathogenetic traits with the chronic inflammation of NASH, possibly related to advanced age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Pathology, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan. ktsune@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuneyama
authors.forename: Hayato
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nomoto
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miwa
authors.forename: Takahiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terada
authors.forename: Johji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Imura
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Selmi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000378:metabolism; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D015551:Autoimmunity; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D001323:Autoantibodies