LYMPHOCYTE-MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY AGAINST CHANG LIVER CELLS IN ACUTE AND CHRONIC ACTIVE HEPATITIS

Abstract

It is of interest to clarify whether peripheral lymphocytes in patients with hepatitis were cytotoxic against ⁵¹Cr labeled Chang liver cells and what kind of lymphocytes in patients with hepatitis were the most important effector.
Lymphocytes from all of 4 patients in peak stage with acute hepatitis (AH-peak) and from 9 of 13 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) showed signicantly greater cytotoxicity than normal, but those from only one of 6 patients with chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) were cytotoxic. In 3 patients with AH-peak and 9 patients with CAH whose lymphocytes were cytotoxic, non-T cell fractions, prepared removal of E-RFC (sheep erithrocyte rosette forming cells), were cytotoxic, but T cell fractions (E-RFC) were not cytotoxic. Furthermore, surface immunoglobulin (sIg) negative “K cell” fractions, obtained through an and-Fab conjugated Sephadex column from non-T cell fractions in 5 patients with CAH, exhibited the greatest cytotoxicity, whereas sIg-bearing B cell fractions were cytotoxic in only one patient.
Lymphocytes from 6 patients in convalescence with AH, 3 of whom showed greater cytotoxicity at peak stage and were retested in convalescence, were within normal range (comparatively lower ⁵¹Cr release than controls), in contrast to persistent cytotoxicity in CAH. This follow-up study suggests that activity of lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity is responsible for persistence of the disease and therefore that suppressed activity of “K cells” may lead to recovery from the diseases.