ANTI ASIALOGLYCOPROTEIN RECEPTOR ANTIBODIES AND SOLUBLE INTERLEUKIN-2RECEPTOR LEVELS AS MARKER FOR INFLAMMATION IN AUTOIMMUNE HEPATITIS

Circulating anti asialoglycoprotein receptor antibodies (anti-ASGPR) a nd soluble interleukin receptor levels (sIL-2R) were blindly determine d in sera of 23 patients with autoimmune hepatitis and compared to 18 healthy individuals. AU patients underwent liver biopsy which was blin dly staged and graded. 14 of 23 (61%) patients but none of normal cont rols showed anti-ASGPR positivity. Eleven of twelve (92%) patients wit h biopsy-proven grade 3 hepatitis were high-titered anti-ASGPR positiv e compared to three of eleven patients with grade 1 hepatitis. Mean le vels of sIL-2R +/- standard deviation were 1,175 +/- 663 units/ml in t he total number of patients with autoimmune hepatitis comparing to 372 +/- 69 units/ml in healthy controls (p < 0.001). Eleven of twelve pat ients with grade 3 hepatitis had significant higher sIL-2R levels (1,6 69 +/- 559) than patients with mild disease (635 +/- 113). Chi-square analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between positive anti- ASGPR titer and elevated sIL-2R values. A follow-up analysis of six pa tients showed a significant decrease of both anti-ASGPR titer and sIL- 2R levels after three to nine months of immunosuppressive therapy. The se findings suggest that elevated sIL-2R levels and anti-ASGPR titer a re associated in patients with autoimmune hepatitis, and as a function of either T or B cell activation, respectively could serve as reliabl e humoral marker for disease-specific activity.