CHARACTERIZATION OF THE INFLAMMATORY INFILTRATE IN AUTOIMMUNE CHOLANGITIS - A MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY

Autoimmune cholangitis (AIC) is characterised by clinical and/or labor atory features of cholestasis, the presence of antinuclear antibodies and the lack of antimitochondrial antibodies. Histologically, changes largely identical to those found in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) ar e typically found. It is not possible to differentiate between AIC and PBC on conventional morphological grounds, and we therefore wished to find whether there is a difference between these entities in the comp osition of the inflammatory infiltrate leading to bile duct destructio n. In liver biopsies from ten patients with confirmed AIC and ten pati ents with PBC the inflammatory infiltrate was characterised with antib odies against CD 3, OPD 4 CD 8, GB 7, L 26, CD 56 and CD 57. In AIC, T cells were predominant in the portal inflammatory infiltrate in nine cases. Granzyme B-positive activated cytolytic T lymphocytes were foun d in the bile duct epithelium in five cases. All these five cases show ed inflammatory bile duct destruction. No significant differences betw een the immunohistochemical findings in AIC and in PBC were found. We suggest that AIC is a subgroup of PBC, antimitochondrial antibody-nega tive type.