Autoantibodies profile in autoimmune liver diseases and chronic viral hepatitis

Despite their low prevalence, autoimmune liver diseases (AILD) cause liver cirrhosis, progress and leads to mortality from liver failure. Autoantibodies are confirmed to have significance in the early screening of AILD patients, especially in those who are asymptomatic before onset of clinical signs. This study aimed to assess levels of liver autoantibodies and their association with clinical manifestations of autoimmune liver diseases and chronic viral hepatitis (CVH) patients. This case-control study included 50 patients (case group of 25 patients with AILD and control group of 25 patients with CVH). They were investigated for presence of antibodies against LKM-1, AMA-M2, PML, M2-3E (BPO), gp210, Sp100, LC-1, Ro52 and SLA/LP using the line immune blot technique, and for the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA), as non-organ specific autoantibodies, using indirect immunofluorescence technique. Specific autoantibodies were detected in all AILD cases and some of their levels were significantly higher when compared with CVH group. Among AILD patients, 52% were positive for ANA, whereas 61.1% of chronic hepatitis C and 28.6% of chronic hepatitis B patients were positive for ANA with no significant difference (p=0.3). In conclusion, early diagnosis of autoimmune liver diseases has been linked to assessment of autoantibodies, allowing for prompt therapeutic intervention to stop the progression of liver cirrhosis and the accompanying complications.