Dendritic cells in portal tracts in chronic hepatitis C and primary biliary cirrhosis with relevance to bile duct damage: an immunohistochemical study

The bile duct damage in chronic hepatitis C (hepatitic bile duct injury) and that in PBC (chronic nonsuppurative destructive cholangitis) shares several histopathologic features. The immunological mechanisms responsible for these two types of bile duct lesions have not been established yet. In this study, we investigated immunohistochemically follicular dendritic cells (FDC) and interdigitating dendritic cells (IDC) in portal tracts of liver biopsy specimens obtained from 90 patients with chronic hepatitis C with hepatitic bile duct injury and 63 PBC patients. FDC and IDC were immunohistochemically surveyed, using a monoclonal antibody recognizing CD35 for the detection of FDC and that recognizing nuclear lamin A/C for the detection of IDC. FDC were observed more frequent in chronic hepatitis C (41%) than in PBC (10%) (P < 0.001). IDC were observed in chronic hepatitis C (12%) and PBC (19%). In PBC, the frequency of IDC decreased according to the progression of the stage (53% in stages 1 and 2 and 20% in stages 3 and 4) (P < 0.05). IDC were frequently found in early stages of PBC (stage 1 and 2) (53%) than in mild and moderate fibrosis of chronic hepatitis C (32%) (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that: (1) the different types of dendritic cells may be related to the different pathology of the lesions of PBC and chronic hepatitis C, respectively, and (2) IDC may play a role in the lesions in the early stages of PBC, while FDC may do in chronic hepatitis C. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.