SPECIFICITIES AND CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE OF ANTICYTOSKELETON ANTIBODIES IN ANTI-SMOOTH-MUSCLE ANTIBODY-POSITIVE PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LIVER-DISEASE-C

We investigated the specificities and characteristics of anti-cytoskel eton antibodies in 13 anti-smooth muscle antibody (ASMA)-positive pati ents with chronic liver disease C (CLD-C), and compared them with thos e in 7 ASMA-positive patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), and 6 A SMA-positive patients with chronic liver disease B (CLD-B). Anti-micro filaments (anti-MF) were found not only in 6/7 AIH patients (85.7%), b ut also in 8/13 CLD-C patients (61.5%) with a relatively high incidenc e, when compared with 1/6 CLD-B patients (16.7%), while, there was no significant difference in the incidence of anti-intermediate filaments (anti-IMF), especially anti-IMF IgM, among these patient groups. Amon g the patients with CLD-C, the mean levels of serum gammaglobulin and IgG in the anti-MF-positive patients were 2.46 +/- 1.03 g/dl and 3277 +/- 1089 mg/dl, respectively, which were higher than those in the anti -MF-negative patients (1.60 +/- 0.53 g/dl, 2245 +/- 610 mg/dl) and tho se in the patients with CLD-B (1.60 +/- 0.57 g/dl, 2192 +/- 339 mg/dl) . Furthermore, 4 of the 8 anti-MF-positive patients with CLD-C satisfi ed the serological criteria for the diagnosis of AIH. These findings s uggest that autoimmune mechanisms might be involved in the pathogenesi s of anti-MF-positive CLD-C, and that anti-MF might be used as a marke r.