Characterization of Anti Liver Kidney Microsomal Antibody Associated with Chronic HDV Infection by Immunoblotting

Cytoplasmic antibodies directed against antigen(s) present in the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum have been reported in a proportion of patients with chronic HBV-HDV infection (Crivelli et al.,1981). While the immunofluorescence (IFL) pattern associated with LKMδ antibody is quite similar to that of the liver kidney microsomal antibody (LKM) described by Rizzetto et al. (1973) and associated with an autoimmune type of chronic active hepatitis (Thomas, 1980), the target antigen(s) was supposed to be different on the basis of blocking experiments. The target antigen of LKM antibody has been recently partially identified as a 50kD protein located in the membranes of the smooth endoplasm…