[Immunologic changes in chronic post-transfusion positive hepatitis C and non-A non-B non-C hepatitis]

To study some aspects of the immunological abnormalities of C and non-A non-B non-C posttransfusional chronic hepatitis through the spontaneous and mitogen-stimulated "in vitro" production of immunoglobulins by peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from non-A non-B posttransfusional chronic hepatitis patients and from healthy volunteers were cultured in presence and absence of Pokeweed mitogen and the secreted immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM) were measured by ELISA in the supernatants. The results in both groups were compared.

23 posttransfusional chronic hepatitis patients, 11 males and 12 females with an average age of 46.73 +/- 11.2 yrs (range: 24-69 yrs), have been studied. The histological diagnosis was chronic active hepatitis (CAH) in 13 cases, CAH with bridge necrosis in 6 patients and CAH with associated cirrhosis in 4 cases. The control group was composed by 11 healthy volunteers, 5 male and 6 female, with an average age of 38.45 +/- 12.77 yrs (range: 26-65 yrs). No one of the control group was positive for anti-HCV antibodies while in the posttransfusional chronic hepatitis patients group, 19 were positive and 4 negative.

No significant differences in the spontaneous production of immunoglobulins between both groups has been found, however, when peripheral blood lymphocytes were stimulated with Pokeweed mitogen, a statistically significant lower production of immunoglobulins was observed in chronic hepatitis patients when compared with the control group. In non-A non-B posttransfusional chronic hepatitis patients, no relation has been found between the immunoglobulins production and histological findings or anti-HCV antibody titles.

In the chronic phase of C and non-A non-B non-C posttransfusional chronic hepatitis, stimulated immunoglobulin production is significantly decreased for each immunoglobulin compared with the control group. These results suggest a failure in T-B lymphocyte cooperation in these infections since 82.6% of our patients were positive for HCV serological markers.