Anticalmodulin autoantibody in liver diseases: a new antibody against a cytoskeleton-related protein

An ELISA has been developed for detection of auto-antibodies against calmodulin. There was a significantly increased frequency (63.1%) of autoantibodies against calmodulin in 103 patients with chronic liver diseases as compared to that (30%) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and to that (6.9%) of normal subjects (p less than 0.01). IgG autoantibodies against calmodulin were detected in the patients with acute hepatitis (37.9%), chronic liver disease (45.6%) and also in the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (30%). IgM autoantibodies against calmodulin were frequently found in patients with liver cirrhosis (52.2%), primary biliary cirrhosis (50%) and autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (38.7%), but rarely in patients with acute hepatitis (13.8%), chronic persistent hepatitis (9.5%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (0%). IgA autoantibodies against calmodulin were frequently found in liver cirrhosis (33.3%), primary biliary cirrhosis (42.9%) and autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (53.6%), but rarely in chronic persistent hepatitis (15.8%), chronic active hepatitis (14.3%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (0%). The occurrences of autoantibodies against calmodulin correlated neither with those of antismooth muscle antibody, antinuclear antibody and antimitochondrial antibody, nor with serum IgG concentrations. Autoantibodies against calmodulin did not cross-react with troponin, myosin light chain, calf thymus DNA and actin. The titer of autoantibodies against calmodulin was decreased by absorption of serum with calmodulin and the liver plasma membrane fraction. The immunoblotting experiment revealed the binding of autoantibodies against calmodulin to calmodulin. IgG fraction from a patient with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis inhibited the activation of phosphodiesterase by calmodulin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)