AUTOANTIBODIES AND ANTIINTERFERON ANTIBODY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC VIRAL-HEPATITIS AND ITS CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE - A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

Objective To determine the autoantibodies and antiinterferon antibody in chronic viral hepatitis patients treated with interferon and the re lation of the antibodies to the curative effect of interferon. Methods Forty chronic viral hepatitis patients (twenty cases for hepatitis B; twenty patients for hepatitis C) were studied. Indirect immunofluores cence assay (IFA) was used to measure the autoantibodies. Enzyme immun oassay (EIA) was used to measure the anti-interferon total antibody. R esults Compared with normal groups, the autoantibodies in patients inc reased significantly (P<0.01), and the anti-interferon antibody in chr onic hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients had an obvious difference (P <0.05). As for the curative effect, the presence or absence of autoant ibodies did not have a distinct significance in patients treated with a-interferon, but the patients with anti-interferon antibody before or after therapy might have a different response to a-interferon. Conclu sions It was suggested that the presence of autoantibodies was not a c ontraindication to the use of interferon in patients with chronic vira l hepatitis; the clinical significance of anti-interferon antidody sho uld be further studied.