AUTOANTIBODIES TO HUMAN ASIALOGLYCOPROTEIN RECEPTOR IN AUTOIMMUNE-TYPE CHRONIC HEPATITIS

Autoantibodies to the human asialoglycoprotein receptor (anti‐h‐ASGPR) were studied with a solid‐phase ELISA in the sera of 421 patients with inflammatory liver diseases, 288 patients with various other disorders and 31 controls. Anti‐h‐ASGPR were found predominantly in autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (44 of 88, 50%) and were closely related to inflammatory activity. In a subpopulation of these patients with untreatd, biopsy‐proven active disease or replase, 15 of 17 were positive (88%). In contrast, only 11 of 204 patients (5.3%) with viral hepatitis were Anti‐h‐ASGPR receptors‐positive (x2 analysis; p < 0.001). We also compared the occurrence of Anti‐h‐ASGPR with antibodies to rabbit and rat asialoglycoprotein receptors in 352 sera. In contrast to the anti‐human asialoglycoprotein receptor antibodies (3 of 107), anti‐rabbit‐ or anti‐rat‐asialoglycoprotein receptor antibodies were found in 21 and 28 of 107 cases of viral hepatitis, indicating that different epitopes were recognized by these sera. In various other diseases anti‐human asialoglycoprotein receptor antibodies were rarely found. Some sera from patients with connective‐tissue diseases (8 of 73) and primary or secondary liver malignancies (6 of 55) exihibited Anti‐h‐ASGPR. In autoimmune chronic active hepatitis the presence of anti‐human asialoglycoprotein receptors did not correlate to other established autoantibody systems. Thus we conclude that anti‐human asialoglycoprotein receptor antibodies can serve as diagnostic markers for inflammatory active cases of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis. Immune reactions to the asialoglycoprotein receptor, which is expressed on the hepatocellular receptor, which is expressed on the hepatocellular membrane as a liver specific antigen, might contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis.(HEPATOLOGY 1990; 11:606:612.) Copyright © 1990 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases