Immunologic analysis of refractory primary biliary cirrhosis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To describe the immunological characteristics of refractory primary biliary cirrhosis compared with the typical patients for more than 1 year's administration of UDCA.Methods Sixty patients treated with UDCA for more than 1 year in our clinic were enrolled into this study.According to the response to UDCA by Paris criteria,patients were divided into refractory group (23 patients) and typical groups (37 patients).The recent peripheral lymphocyte subsets and cytokines of the two groups were tested and analyzed.One-way ANOVA and t test were used for statistical analysis.Results ① One-year treatment after diagnosis,there were no differences between the two groups in the distribution of peripheral lymphocytic subsets,meanwhile,the two groups had higher percentage of B cells,CD4+T cells,CD4+CD28+T cells and CD8+ CD28-T cells than healthy controls respectively.② The serum levels of IL-6 [(0.8±0.9) pg/ml vs (0.3±0.4) pg/ml] and HGF were higher in the refractory group than other groups.Conclusion During the plateau phase,refractory PBC patients have higher serum levels of IL-6 and HGF,which probably suggest that the refractory PBC patients may have severe immunologic disturbance in vivo.