Ohana M, Okazaki K, Hajiro K, Uchida K
Department of Gastroenterology, Tenri Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
Am J Gastroenterol. 1998 Aug;93(8):1334-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1572-0241.1998.444_n.x.
Lactoferrin, an immunoregulatory protein in mucosal secretions, is one of the target antigens to perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (P-ANCAs). Circulating lactoferrin is cleared in the liver, but little is known about the implication of lactoferrin in hepatic inflammation. To evaluate the implication of immunological response to lactoferrin, we examined antilactoferrin antibodies in autoimmune liver diseases.
Fourteen patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), 14 with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), five with autoimmune cholangitis (AIC), six with chronic hepatitis C, and five with chronic hepatitis B were studied. We evaluated autoantibodies to lactoferrin in the sera of the patients by the Western Immunoblotting method.
Sera of five of the 14 patients (35.7%) with PBC, four of the 14 patients (28.6%) with AIH, and five of the five patients (100%) with AIC contained autoantibodies to human lactoferrin, but none with hepatitis B or C had them. The higher prevalence of serum antibodies to human lactoferrin was shown to be higher in patients with AIC than with hepatitis B (p < 0.01), hepatitis C (p < 0.01), PBC (p < 0.05), and AIH (p < 0.05).
Lactoferrin located in bile ducts and liver cells is one of the candidates of target antigens in autoimmune liver diseases, especially in AIC.
乳铁蛋白是一种黏膜分泌物中的免疫调节蛋白，是抗中性粒细胞胞质抗体（P-ANCA）的靶抗原之一。循环中的乳铁蛋白在肝脏中被清除，但乳铁蛋白在肝脏炎症中的作用却知之甚少。为了评估对乳铁蛋白的免疫反应的影响，我们检测了自身免疫性肝病患者中的抗乳铁蛋白抗体。
研究了14例原发性胆汁性肝硬化（PBC）患者、14例自身免疫性肝炎（AIH）患者、5例自身免疫性胆管炎（AIC）患者、6例慢性丙型肝炎患者和5例慢性乙型肝炎患者。我们通过蛋白质免疫印迹法评估了患者血清中针对乳铁蛋白的自身抗体。
14例PBC患者中有5例（35.7%）、14例AIH患者中有4例（28.6%）以及5例AIC患者中有5例（100%）的血清中含有抗人乳铁蛋白自身抗体，但慢性乙型或丙型肝炎患者中均无此类抗体。结果显示，AIC患者血清抗人乳铁蛋白抗体的患病率高于慢性乙型肝炎（p < 0.01）、慢性丙型肝炎（p < 0.01）、PBC（p < 0.05）和AIH（p < 0.05）患者。
位于胆管和肝细胞中的乳铁蛋白是自身免疫性肝病，尤其是AIC中靶抗原的候选者之一。
