Immune dysfunction in primary biliary cirrhosis. II. Increased production of prostaglandin E.

In a previous study we observed that after in vitro treatment with indomethacin, lymphocyte response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients was higher than that of controls. We know that indomethacin also inhibits prostanoid production, and thus in the present work we directly measured prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and thromboxane B2 (TXB2) production by mononuclear cells and monocytes from 12 PBC patients, 11 control subjects, and three control disease patients (alcoholic cirrhosis, AC). PHA-stimulated enriched monocytes from PBC patients produced approximately threefold more PGE2 (after 48 h of culture) than did normal and AC monocytes (P less than 0.05). TXB2 production was similar in all groups studied. We also made cultures in which PBC-purified lymphocytes proliferated better than PBC mononuclear cells (i.e. lymphocytes plus monocytes). Thus, a monocyte population producing PGE2 could be responsible, at least in part, for the hyporesponsiveness to PHA observed in PBC patients.