Abstract

In Korea chronic liver diseases are the important medical issues because of their high incidence, poor prognosis and no available therapeutic resume. It is believed that the etiologic agent of most of chronic liver diseases in Korea is hepatitis B virus. To find out the incidence of positivity and to understand the autoantibodies in some of the chronic liver diseases in Korea, anti-smooth muscle antibody and anti-nuclear antibody tests were performed on 43 patient serum with chronic active hepatitis, 13 patient serum with chronic persistant hepatitis and 20 patient serum with liver cirrhosis, who diagnosed by liver biopsies. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1) The positivity of anti-smooth muscle antibody in chronic active hepatitis was 93.0%, that in chronic persistant hepatitis 60.0% and that in liver cirrhosis 80.0%. 2) The positivity of anti-nuclear antibody in chronic active hepatitis was 18.6%, that in chronic persistant hepatitis 15.4%, that in liver cirrhosis 5.0%. 3) The test efficiency of anti-smooth muscle antibody to differentiate chronic active hepatitis from chronic persistant hepatitis and liver cirrhosis was 48.7%. The above results suggest that the antismooth muscle antibody may be related to the "necrosis of liver cells", and further studies are needed to fine out any relationship between the autoantibody and the disturbance of immune regulatory function if there is, as this study suggested.