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Absence of anti‐LKM‐1 antibody in hepatitis C viral infection in the United States of America
Author(s) -
Reddy K. R.,
Krawitt E. L.,
Homberg J.C.,
Jeffers L. J.,
Medina M.,
Chastenay B.,
Poupon R.,
Opolon P.,
Beaugrand M.,
Abuaf N.,
Grégeois J.,
Johanet C.,
Schiff E. R.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2893.1995.tb00026.x
Subject(s) - antibody , serology , hepatitis c virus , hepatitis , autoimmune hepatitis , viral hepatitis , immunology , virology , hepatitis c , medicine , liver disease , virus , biology
Summary. Several studies from Europe have observed a relationship between hepatitis C virus infection and anti‐liver/kidney microsome‐1 (anti‐LKM‐1) positive chronic hepatitis. It has been suggested that hepatitis C may induce an autoimmune phenomenon that leads to the development of a specific type (type II anti‐LKM‐1 positive) autoimmune chronic hepatitis. We evaluated 204 sera from patients with well‐documented hepatitis C infection from two centres in the United States of America and compared them with sera from 428 French patients from three centres. We evaluated the serological prevalence of anti‐smooth muscle antibodies, anti‐nuclear antibodies, anti‐liver cytosol antibodies, and anti‐mitochondrial antibodies subtype anti‐M 2 in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The two groups were matched in their ages, gender, mode of transmission of hepatitis C infection and severity of liver disease. Anti‐LKM‐1 was not observed in the patients from the USA at a time when it was noted in 3.7% of French patients. There were no differences, however, in the expression of other auto‐antibodies, which were often in low titres. Absence of anti‐LKM‐1 in USA sera in comparison with French sera suggests that there may be differences in induction of anti‐LKM‐1 related to environmental and/or host genetic factors, and/or genomic variation in the hepatitis C virus.