Low prevalence of autoimmune antiphospholipid antibodies in hepatic diseases.

Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) have been associated with different disea ses. They are defined as a large family of immunoglobulins (Ig) of either a lloantibodies or autoantibodies. The autoimmune antibodies are associated w ith venous and/or arterial thrombosis, thrombocytopenia and recurrent fetal loss in the so-called antiphospholipid syndrome or in systemic lupus eryth ematosus. These antibodies are directed against proteins or phospholipid-pr otein complexes. On the contrary, antiphospholipid antibodies (alloantibodi es) which are found in infectious diseases sera (syphilis, HIV, and other v iral diseases), disappear with illness remission and are directed to phosph olipids alone (particularly cardiolipin) and are not associated with thromb osis or recurrent fetal loss. However, the role and type of aPL found durin g hepatic diseases is still unclear. To investigate the prevalence of autoi mmune aPL (IgG and IgM) during different hepatic diseases, we have studied 128 patients with hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus and hepatic autoimmu ne diseases without treatment as well as 40 healthy control subjects. We ha ve used a specific ELISA kit, that uses a mixture of phospholipid instead o f cardiolipin alone, and allows a better detection of aPL of the autoimmune type. Our results show that autoimmune aPL are not significantly increased in viral hepatic diseases (2%) or autoimmune diseases of the liver (3%) wh en compared to the control group (0%).