Peripheral blood T cell responses to recombinant PDCª²E2 in primary biliary cirrhosis

    ZHAO Jun£¬WANG Yeª²Dong£¬XIN Shaoª²Jie£¬CHI Shuª²Ping£¬LI Jing£¬SHU Cuiª²Li£¬LI Boª²An£¬CHENG Yun£¬ZHAO Jun

    Department of Immunology, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Chinese PLA 302 Hospital£¬Beijing 100039, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To evaluate the peripheral blood T cell responses to PDCª²E2 and its possible role in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). METHODS: Fourteen patients with PBC and four patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) were enrolled in this study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stimulated by purified recombinant PDCª²E2. Stimulation index was measured by 3Hª²TdR incorporation assay and TNFª²a was detected in the supernatant of culture by ELISA. RESULTS: The proliferation of PBMCs was observed in 8 out of the 14 PBC patients, who were antimitochomdrial antibody (AMA) or antiª²M2 positive. AMA positivity or antiª²M2 positivity was not observed in AIH patients. TNFª²a secretion increased significantly after stimulation in all the 11 antiª²M2 positive PBC patients. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the possibility of using PDCª²E2 as a target antigen to induce autoimmune damage in PBC and that TNFª²a may play an important role in this damage. ......