Abstract
Immune mechanism of hepatocytes-in july in chronic liver diseases was studied. Live specific lipoprotein (LSP, Meyer zum Bizschenfelde) may play an important role in the chronic liver diseases, and that in chronic active hepatitis, a LSP-mediated antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) may established itself, which would serve as an immunopathogenic cause of liver cell injury.
The K-cell populatin of peripheral blood, the effector cell of ADCC, was significantly decreased compared with that in normal subjects even in patients with demonstrated serum ADCC activity to hepatocytes. This decrease of K-cell population showed that serum inhibitory factors of K-cell exsists beside the antibodies which induce ADCC in patients serum by an underlying experiments.
Analysis by Sephadex G 100 gel filtration of supernates from cultures of LSP-sensiti-zed peripheral lymphocytes from patients revealed a factor, recovered as a forth fraction, which proved capable of increasing the K-cell population.
The results have also demonstrated the presence of an immunopathogenic mechanism whereby hepatocellular injury due to ADCC in chronic liver diseases, particularly in chronic active hepatitis is controlle by K-cells, the effector cells.
