Search results for "Autoimmune"
showing 10 items of 648 documents
Concurrent autoimmune diseases in patients with autoimmune hepatitis.
2010
Although the pathomechanisms of autoimmune diseases in various organs remain unresolved, an accumulation of autoimmune diseases in individual patients has been observed. An overlap of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or primary sclerosing cirrhosis has been well documented. However, the overlap of autoimmune diseases other than PBC or PSC has not yet been investigated in a large cohort.The goal of our analysis was to investigate the incidence of concurrent autoimmune diseases in patients with AIH.We analyzed our cohort of 278 patients with AIH for concurrent autoimmune diseases.A total of 111 patients (40%) were diagnosed with additional autoimmune diseases. Be…
Transforming growth factor-β1 in autoimmune hepatitis: correlation of liver tissue expression and serum levels with disease activity
1998
Abstract Background/Aims: Transforming growth factor-β 1 (TGF-β 1 ) is considered the most important mediator of hepatic fibrogenesis. At the same time, TGF-β 1 is an immunosuppressive cytokine. Development of fibrosis, often rapid, is a characteristic of autoimmune hepatitis, as is spontaneous systemic immunosuppression. The aim of our study was therefore to define the role of TGF-β 1 in autoimmune hepatitis. Methods/Results: Using the MV 1Lu bioassay, we found markedly elevated serum levels of TGF-β 1 (median 109 ng/ml) in active autoimmune hepatitis, which normalised when patients reached biochemical remission following immunosuppressive therapy (median 34 ng/ml; p =0.0001 compared to ac…
Severe meningo-/encephalitis after daclizumab therapy for multiple sclerosis.
2019
Background: Daclizumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds the high-affinity interleukin-2 receptor and was approved for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis. Due to severe inflammatory brain disorders, the approval was suspended in March 2018. Objective and Methods: This retrospective cohort study summarizes clinical, laboratory, radiological, and histological findings of seven patients who developed meningo-/encephalitis after daclizumab therapy. Results: Patients presented with encephalitis and/or meningitis and suffered from systemic symptoms such as fever (5/7), exanthema (5/7), or gastrointestinal symptoms (4/7). Secondary autoimmune diseases developed. Blood analysis reveale…
Pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases associated with 8.1 ancestral haplotype: a genetically determined defect of C4 influences immunological parameter…
2003
Abstract Subjects with certain HLA alleles have a higher risk of specific autoimmune diseases than those without these alleles. The 8.1 ancestral haplotype (AH) is a common Caucasoid haplotype carried by most people who type for HLA-B8,DR3. It is unique in its association with a wide range of immunopathological diseases. To gain insight into the identification of the mechanism(s) of disease susceptibility of 8.1 AH carriers, we have investigated the prevalence of circulating immune complexes and non-organ-specific autoantibodies in healthy carriers of the haplotype. The results show that carriers of 8.1 AH display both a significant increased prevalence of immune complexes and higher titers…
Autoimmune hepatitis following Epstein-Barr virus infection
2008
We describe a case of a young man with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) following Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection, in whom a long follow-up showed favourable outcome with complete clinical recovery and failure to relapse after cessation of immunosuppressive therapy. The study underlines the importance of the differential diagnosis between primary EBV associated hepatitis with features of autoimmunity, in which there is a direct pathogenetic role of the virus, and EBV related AIH, in which EBV could act as the trigger of the immune mediated damage with probable differences between the two conditions with regard to the prognosis and the responsiveness to immunosuppressive treatment. The favourab…
Increased frequency of the CTLA-4 49 A/G polymorphism in patients with acquired haemophilia A compared to healthy controls
2007
Acquired haemophilia (AH) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by autoantibodies against endogenous factor VIII (FVIII). Half of the patients present with an underlying disease known to cause the FVIII autoantibodies whereas in the other half the disease is of idiopathic nature. Recently, it has been shown that variants of the polymorphic cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) gene are associated with autoimmune diseases and also represent a risk factor for inhibitor formation in inherited haemophilia A. In the present study, we investigated whether CTLA-4 variants also play a role in the pathogenesis of AH. Therefore, we analyzed three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the CT…
Serum hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA and response to alpha-interferon in anti-HCV positive chronic hepatitis
1992
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication was assessed before and during alpha-interferon (IFN) treatment in 22 anti-HCV positive patients with posttransfusion or sporadic chronic hepatitis (CH). Eleven patients were “responders” and 11 patients “non-responders” to IFN. Thirteen anti-HCV negative healthy subjects and five anti-HCV negative patients with autoimmune CH served as controls. Serum HCV-RNA was detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in all untreated anti-HCV positive patients but in none of the anti-HCV negative subjects. PCR primers from the 5′-non-coding (NC) region were more sensitive than primers from a non-structural (NS5) region in detecting HCV-RNA (21/22, 95% vs. 7/22, …
Phenotypical analysis and cytokine release of liver-infiltrating and peripheral blood T lymphocytes from patients with chronic hepatitis of different…
2008
Cytokines released by infiltrating T cells may contribute to the hepatic injury in chronic hepatitis. Therefore, we characterized peripheral blood- and liver-infiltrating T cells from patients with chronic hepatitis of different etiology and determined the T cell phenotypes and the cytokine release. Liver tissue and peripheral blood-derived T cells from patients with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis predominantly expressed CD4-molecules and the alpha- and beta-chains of the T cell receptor (TCR). In chronic viral hepatitis B and C, liver- and blood-derived T cells were preferentially CD8+ T cells expressing the alpha beta TCR. Mitogenic stimulation with irradiated Daudi ly…
PREDICTION OF SEVERE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS USING EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS
1994
One of the immunological abnormalities in patients with RA is increased synthesis of immunoglobulins (Ig) in cultures of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV-) stimulated lymphocytes. We set out to investigate whether this feature, seen early in the disease, associated with later severe RA. We studied prospectively 45 patients with recent onset RA and, 41 healthy individuals. From 0-6 months after admission, blood lymphocytes were cultured in the presence of EBV for 4 weeks and Ig in the supernatants were assayed. To assess the severity of disease, clinical, laboratory and radiological evaluations were performed every 6 months for 2 yr. The association of increased Ig production with the severity of RA …
Genetic control of immune response in carriers of the 8.1 ancestral haplotype: correlation with levels of IgG subclasses: its relevance in the pathog…
2007
Ancestral haplotype (AH) 8.1(HLA-A1, Cw7, B8, TNFAB*a2b3, TNFN*S, C2*C, Bf*s, C4A*Q0, C4B*1, DRB1*0301, DRB3*0101, DQA1*0501, DQB1*0201) seems to be associated with susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. Different mechanisms are probably involved in increasing autoimmunity, such as unbalanced cytokine production and the lack of C4A protein. So AH 8.1 modifies immune response in many ways. In this study we demonstrate that IgG2 serum levels were significantly lower in 8.1 AH carriers than in 8.1 AH non-carriers. On the contrary, as regards IgG1, IgG3, IgG4 serum levels, no significant differences were observed between the two groups. In AH 8.1 carriers low IgG2 levels might take to slower cl…