ANTISULFATIDE ANTIBODY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C - ITS PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL-FEATURES OF PATIENTS WITH THE ANTIBODY

We investigated the prevalence of antisulfatide antibody, an antibody found in sera from patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) type 1, in sera from 39 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CH-C). The antibody w as examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as reported previousl y and was detected in three cases (7.7%). These three patients were in cluded in 18 patients carrying antinuclear antibody (ANA), measured us ing HEp-2 cell monolayers, and also included in 15 patients whose seru m IgG concentration was over 2000 mg/100 ml. Antisulfatide antibody di d not occur in 21 patients who were negative for ANA. On the contrary, antisulfatide antibody was detected in 22 of 24 patients (91.7%) with AIH type 1 whose markers of hepatitis virus C and B infection were ne gative. In conclusion, antisulfatide antibody was rare, but did occur in patients with CH-C. This provides a clue for resolving autoimmune p henomena in patients with CH-C.