CIRCULATING IMMUNE-COMPLEXES IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C

For assessing the role of circulating immune complexes (CIC) in chroni c hepatitis C, the relative frequency of CIC was determined in 54 pati ents with chronic hepatitis C, 15 asymptomatic hepatitis C virus (HCV) carriers, and 54 healthy controls. IgM and IgG containing CIC were st udied using both Clq and conglutinin (K) in an immunoglobulin-specific solid-phase enzyme immunoassay. CIC were a common feature of chronic hepatitis C with 96.3% of patients with at least one abnormal test res ult. The prevalence of elevated IgG-K, IgM-K, IgG-C1q, and IgM-C1q CIC was 70.3%, 50.0%, 64.8%, and 35.1%, respectively. The prevalence of I gG class CIC was higher than IgM class CIC (P = 0.038 for K-CIC and P = 0.01 for C1q-CIC, respectively). There is correlation between IgG-K CIC and ISG-C1q CIC (r = 0.445, P = 0.002), IgG-K CIC and ISM-C1q CIC (r = 0.348, P = 0.020), IgM-K CIC and aspartic aminotransferase (r = 0 .321, P = 0.015), IgM-K CIC and alanine aminotransferase (r = 0.301, P = 0.027). Compared to patients with chronic persistent hepatitis and chronic lobular hepatitis, patients with chronic active hepatitis have a higher prevalence of elevated IgG-K CIC (77.2% vs. 40.0%, P = 0.029 ) and IgM-K CIC (56.8% vs. 20.0%, P = 0.038). The concentration of IgG -K, IgM-K, and IgM-C1q CIC in the former was significantly higher than that in the latter, respectively. In conclusion, IgG class CIC is the major type of CIC in chronic hepatitis C. Conglutinin-binding CIC cor relates with more severe tissue damage. CIC may play a role in the pat hogenesis of chronic hepatitis C. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.