[Secretory immunoglobulin A levels of the bile in cholelithiasis]

Secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) in the bile was measured in 71 patients with cholelithiasis and in a control group of 10 patients without hepatobiliary disease, by using enzyme immunoassay specific to SIgA. Bile SIgA levels of patients with pigment stone, positive culture of bile for bacteria in a all of them, were significantly lower than that in control group (P less than 0.005); constituent ratios of SIgA in total immunoglobulins were markedly lower than that in the control (P less than 0.001); relative coefficient of excretion of SIgA was also significantly lower than that in the control (P less than 0.001). In patients with infectious cholecystolithiasis, bile SIgA concentrations were lower than that without infection (P less than 0.01), and that in the control (P less than 0.01). These results suggest that there is certain relation between biliary tract infection and low concentrations of bile SIgA.