Antigen profile among patients with autoimmune hepatitis

ABSTRACT

Autoimmune hepatitis [AIH] is a disease of an unknown cause. Our study was conducted on 20 patients diagnosed by laboratory according to Mackay's criteria 15 as having Autoimmune hepatitis and 20 healthy controls. Each patient and control were fully typed for HLADRB class II alleles using sequence specific probes [SSP] polymerase chain reaction [PCR] typing. Our results detected that DR[4] alleles was highly significant detected among patient [48.8%] in contrast with [6.3%] among controls [RR, 7.8 and P<0.001]. Also the subtype 0401 was the highly prevalent subtype detected among patients and controls [50% and 3.8%], respectively [RR 13.5 and P<0.001]. Also DR[15] allele was negatively associated with AIH [7.5% and 37.5%] among both patients and controls, respectively. It is considered as a protective alleles. Furthermore, the subtype 1501 was highly prevalent among controls [48.8%] in contrast [6.3%] among patients. Most patients were females with hypergammaglobulinemia and characteristic autoantibodies were diagnostic markers. In conclusion DR[4] allele is the most prevalent associated allele in AIH patient and the subtype 0401 is a prevalent significant subtype. Furthermore, DR[15] is the most prevalent protective allele and its subtype 1501 is the most predominant subtype. HLA typing is an easy and useful method for detecting AIH patients so early management with immuno supervise therapy in order to prevent the liver damage