Defective Fc receptor-mediated clearance in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Fc receptor-mediated clearance of immunoglobulin G-coated autologous erythrocytes was studied in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (n = 14), alcoholic liver cirrhosis (n = 5) and healthy reference individuals (n = 14). The mean half-life of the sensitized erythrocytes was significantly prolonged in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (85 +/- 25 minutes; P less than 0.001) compared with the corresponding value in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (16 +/- 2 minutes) and healthy reference individuals (20 +/- 5 minutes), respectively. No correlation between clearance rate and age, liver histopathology, or serum levels of bilirubin, aminotransferases, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin A, and Clq binding or C3-containing immune complexes was found. The results presented here indicate a profound disturbance of Fc receptor-mediated immune clearance function in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.