Analysis of HLA alleles polymorphism in Chinese patients with primary biliary cirrhosis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the frequencies of human leuckocyte antigens (HLA) -A, B and DRB1 alleles in Chinese patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) using polymerase chain reaction-based techniques, and to assess the correlation of HLA molecules with other clinical and laboratory profiles.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Genotyping of HLA-A, B, and DRB1 were performed in 65 well-characterized patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and 431 healthy controls with PCR amplification with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequency of DRB1*0701 was increased to 29.2% compared with 13.9% in the controls (PC < 0.05, OR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.4 approximately 4.6). No association was found with HLA-DRB1*08 which had been constantly reported. The A*2 allele (53.8%) was more frequent in the PBC patient group but without a significant statistical difference. The frequencies for the other A, B and DRB1 alleles were similar between patients and healthy controls. There was no difference between patients with or without DRB1*0701 in some clinical and laboratory profiles.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Susceptibility to primary biliary cirrhosis in Chinese is associated with DRB1*0701 allele and differs from people in North America, South America, North Europe and even in Japan, but the association is not restricted to any particular subgroup of patients. Valine at position 78 of HLA DRbeta1 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis.</p>

The value of antimitochondrial antibody and its subtypes in the diagnosis of primary biliary cirrhosis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>A study on the value of antimitochondrial antibody (AMA) and its subtypes anti-M2, anti-M4, and anti-M9 in diagnosing primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Antimitochondrial antibody was detected by indirect immunofluorescence and anti-M2, anti-M4 and anti-M9 by Western blotting. AMA and anti-M2 of 78 PBC patients, of 35 non-PBC hepato-biliary disease patients and 20 healthy controls were studied and anti-M2, anti-M4 and anti-M9 were studied in 30 of the 78 PBC patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>96.2% (75/78) of PBC patients were AMA positive and 94.9% (74/78) of PBC patients were anti-M2 positive. Only three among the 35 non-PBC patients were positive for AMA (one with very low titre). None of the 35 non-PBC patients was anti-M2 positive. AMA and anti-M2 were negative in all the healthy controls. Among the 30 anti-M2 positive patients, 16 patients were anti-M4 positive (16/30, 53.3%) and 4 patients were anti-M9 positive (4/30, 13.3%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>AMA and its subtypes (special anti-M2) are important sero-immunological markers for the diagnosis of PBC.</p>

Genetic association of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha polymorphisms with primary biliary cirrhosis and autoimmune liver diseases in a Chinese population / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) are two autoimmune diseases of unknown etiology. Genetic factors appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of both diseases. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is one of the proinflammatory cytokines and immunomodulators, and is implicated in the pathogenesis of AIH and PBC. In this study, we studied the association between Chinese patients with AIH, PBC and the polymorphisms in promoter-region polymorphisms of the TNF-alpha gene at position -308 and -238.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We have investigated four candidate gene loci in 49 patients with AIH, 58 patients with PBC, and 160 healthy controls. The polymorphisms were assessed by the PCR specifically for the single-nucleotide polymorphisms.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>We found the difference in the TNF-alpha gene at position -308 genotype distributions between Chinese health controls and Caucasian health controls. Although the percent of TNF-alpha*2 was decrease on PBC patient group (10.34% vs. 16.88%), there was no significant difference between PBC patients and health control in the Chinese. There were also no significant differences between AIH and health control on the TNF-alpha gene at position -308 and -238.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our findings suggest that the TNF-alpha promoter-region polymorphisms distribution is different between differe of ethnic groups; there are no genetic links of the TNF-alpha promoter-region polymorphisms to AIH and PBC in Chinese.</p>

A study on the relationship between interleukin-10 promoter polymorphism and autoimmune liver disease / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether three biallelic polymorphisms at the position -592, -819 and -1082 in the promoter region of the IL-10 gene were associated with the incidence of autoimmune liver disease.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The IL-10 -592 and IL-10-1082 polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms analysis (PCR-RFLP), while polymerase chain reaction- sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) assay was used to detect IL-10 -819 polymorphisms.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among 54 Chinese patients with AIH or 77 Chinese patients with PBC versus healthy controls, the frequency of AA, GA genotypes at IL-10 gene promoter -1082 position was 87.0% or 83.1% versus 90.0%, 13.0% or 16.9% versus 10.0%, respectively (P > 0.05), the GG genotype in Chinese populations is absent; the frequency of CC, CT, TT genotypes at IL-10 gene promoter -819 position was 11.11% or 9.1% versus 8.1%, 44.4% or 53.3% versus 45.0%, 44.4% or 37.7% versus 46.9%, respectively (P > 0.05); the frequency of CC, CA, AA genotypes at IL-10 gene promoter -592 position was 4.9% or 14.3% versus 10.0%, 51.2% or 53.3% versus 51.9%, 43.9% or 32.5% versus 38.1%, respectively (P > 0.05). No alleles differed significantly in each groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There were no association between IL-10 gene polymorphisms and autoimmune liver disease</p>

The relationship between Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and primary biliary cirrhosis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) infection and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Chlamydia pneumoniae IgG and IgM were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 41 well-established PBC patients and two race-matched control groups, PHC, n = 70; healthy controls, HC, n =57).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean levels and seroprevalence of CP IgG in PBC group and PHC group were significantly higher than in the HC [(46.8 +/- 43.4) RU/ml, (49.5 +/- 45.2) RU/ml vs (28.3 +/- 32.7) RU/ml, P = 0.042 and P < 0.001 respectively; 68.3%, 71.4% vs 42.1%, chi2 values were 5.389 and 11.110 respectively]. There was a markedly elevated seroprevalence of CP IgM in patients with PBC (22.0%) compared with the PHC and HC groups. The odds ratios (ORs) for the presence of CP IgG and IgM for the PBC patients versus the HC were 2.7 (95% CI 0.9 to 6.1) and 5.1 (95% CI 1.4 to 18.5). Though there was no correlation in the level of CP IgG with total IgG in sera of patients with PBC (r=-0.857, p=0.344), CP IgM was related with the abnormally high concentrations of total IgM in the PBC group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The results of this study do not support the hypothesis that infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae may be a triggering agent for PBC, but suggest that Chlamydia pneumoniae infection probably contributes to the high level of IgM presented in most of the patients with PBC</p>

Study on the relationship of CTLA-4 -318, +49 polymorphisms with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis in a Chinese population / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the association between Chinese patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and the polymorphisms of cytotoxic T lymphocyte -associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) gene promoter (-318) and exon 1 (+49).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The CTLA-4 promoter (-318 T/C) and exon 1 (+49A/G) polymorphisms were genotyped via restriction fragment length polymorphism methods in 62 Chinese AIH patients, 77 Chinese PBC patients and 160 healthy controls.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was no difference in the distribution of CTLA-4 promoter -318 T/C polymorphisms between AIH patients and controls, but the C allele frequency was significantly increased in patients with AIH, compared to controls (P=0.02, OR=2.43). The distribution of CTLA-4 gene exon 1 49 A/G genotypes exhibited significant difference between PBC patients and controls (P=0.006), and the frequency of G allele showed a significant increase in PBC group as compared with controls (P=0.0046, OR=1.8). Although the genotype distribution of the CTLA-4 exon 1-promoter gene displayed no significant difference between AIH and PBC patients and controls, the occurrence of GG-CC was increased in the patients of the two groups (AIH: 32.3%, PBC: 37.7%; control: 22.5%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The above findings suggest that the polymorphisms of CTLA-4 gene probably confer susceptibility to AIH and PBC in the Chinese population.</p>

Prediction and identification of autoepitopes of PDC-E2 specific CD8+ CTL in primary biliary cirrhosis patients / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To identify autoepitopes of E2 subunit of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC-E2) specific CD8+ CTL in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An online database SYFPEITHI was applied to predict HLA-A*0201 restricted epitopes which located in PDC-E2 30-50 aa and 150-190 aa where B-cell epitopes clustered with CD4+ T-cell epitopes. T2 cell line reconstitution and stabilization assay, induction of specific CTL lines from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with PBC and cytotoxicity of peptides-induced CTL were performed to screen the epitopes from those candidates.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five potential epitopes were predicted by database. Of the 5 candidates, two peptides 159-167 aa and 165-174 aa, with highly binding activity to HLA-A*0201 molecules, could stimulate PBMCs from most HLA-A*0201 positive PBC patients to proliferate and peptide-induced CTL lines showed specific cytotoxicity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Peptides of KLSEGDLLA (159-167 aa) and LLAEIETDKA (165-174 aa) in the inner lipoyl domain of PDC-E2 are HLA-A*0201 restricted CD8+ CTL immunodominant epitopes in PBC.</p>

Genetic association between interleukins gene polymorphisms with primary biliary cirrhosis in Chinese population / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the relationship between polymorphisms in the genes encoding IL-1, IL-6, and IL-10 with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in Chinese population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Whole-blood samples were taken from 77 patients with PBC and 160 healthy controls. DNA was extracted and the polymorphisms at positions IL-1 +3953, IL-1RN intron 2, IL-6 -174, and IL-10 -1082, -819, and -592 were determined by using sequence-specific polymerase chain reaction (SSP) or polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequency of IL-1RN1,1 allele in PBC group was significantly higher than in control group (90.9% vs 79.4%, P=0.026), and the frequency of IL-1RN1,2 in PBC group was significantly lower than in control group (6.5% vs 18.8%, P=0.013). There was no significant difference in the frequence of IL-1RN*2 allele between PBC group and control group (P=0.06). Of the 77 patients with PBC, 4 patients were IL-6 -174GC, 73 were IL-6 174GG. All the 160 health controls are IL-6 -174GG (P=0.0036). The frequence of IL-6 -174C allele in PBC group was significantly higher than that in control group (P=0.0038). No significant differences of polymorphisms for IL-1 +3953 and IL-10 (-1082, -819 and -592) were found between PBC group and control group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The polymorphisms of IL-1RN and IL-6 -174G/C appear to be associated with PBC, and the polymorphisms of IL-1 +3953 and IL-10 promoter gene are not associated with PBC in a Chinese population.</p>