IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF FAS ANTIGEN IN LIVER OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS AND AUTOIMMUNE LIVER-DISEASE

To examine the presence of Fas antigen in the liver in various stained Fas antigen immunohistochemically in the livers of 12 patients who we re diagnosed as chronic hepatitis C in five, chronic hepatitis B in th ree, primary biliary cirrhosis in three, and autoimmune hepatitis in o ne, Three specimens with non-specific reactive hepatitis (NSRH) were u sed as histological controls. We prepared two kinds of rabbit polyclon al antibodies (anti-C, anti-D) as the primary antibody, raised against synthetic polypeptides from the two regions of human Fas antigen (C r egion, aa 300-314; D region, aa 104-114). The degree of the presence o f Fas antigen expressed as the mean labeling index was relatively high er in chronic liver disease than in NSRH. Fas antigen was stained in t he cytoplasm regardless of differences in primary antibody, but more d iffusely in antibody C, Fas antigen was randomly distributed in the lo bule and mainly concentrated in the periportal area associated with pi ecemeal necrosis, These results suggest that Fas antigen is related to liver injury from chronic viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver diseas e.