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B7‐2 positive cells around interlobular bile ducts in primary biliary cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis C
Author(s) -
KAJI KYOSUKE,
TSUNEYAMA KOICHI,
NAKANUMA YASUNI,
HARADA KENICHI,
SASAKI MOTOKO,
KANEKO SHUICHI,
KOBAYASHI KENICHI
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of gastroenterology and hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1440-1746
pISSN - 0815-9319
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1746.1997.tb00474.x
Subject(s) - medicine , primary biliary cirrhosis , bile duct , liver biopsy , cirrhosis , hepatitis , pathology , gastroenterology , biopsy
ABSTRACT Bile duct damage in patients with chronic hepatitis C (hepatitis‐associated bile duct lesion) as well as that in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC; chronic non‐suppurative destructive cholangitis), may be causally related to immunological assaults. Efficient antigen presentation is known to require the provision of a costimulatory signal which is dependent on the CD28 on T cell surfaces, and that at least two molecules, B7‐1 and B7‐2, work as costimulatory ligands for CD28. In this study, we examined immunohistochemically, the expression of B7‐2 in portal tracts of liver biopsy specimens obtained from 75 patients with chronic hepatitis C who had hepatitis‐associated bile duct lesions, and from 63 PBC patients with chronic non‐suppurative destructive cholangitis. B7‐2 positive cells were recognizable as large mononuclear cells scattered in portal tracts. Some of these cells showed a dendritic cell‐like appearance. B7‐2 positive cells were observed more frequently (41%) in PBC liver specimens than in chronic hepatitis C specimens (17%, P < 0.05). In PBC livers, such cells were preferentially observed around the damaged bile duct with a few located in the biliary epithelial layer. There was no such finding in chronic hepatitis C livers. The frequency and density of B7‐2 positive cells in the liver specimens tended to decrease according to the stage of PBC (45% in stages 1 and 2, and 33% in stages 3 and 4; P =0.10), whereas with chronic hepatitis C, no such tendency was observed. These findings suggest that B7‐2 positive cells may play a role in the bile duct lesions that appear in the early histological stages of PBC and that the immunological mechanisms of bile duct damage, particularly of antigen presentation and B7‐2 expression, differ between PBC and chronic hepatitis C.