Impaired monocyte function in primary biliary cirrhosis.

A study was carried out on the chemotactic capacity and monocyte adherence in 11 patients with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC); 26 cases of Alcoholic Liver Disease (CALD); 18 cases of Chronic Active Hepatitis (CAH) and 43 controls. Overall, the chemotactic response was depressed in all patients and was correlated with the degree of hepatic affectation only in the CALD and CAH cases. In PBC, a chemotactic defect could be observed against all the chemoattractant agents employed, the sera from these patients being unable to inhibit the movement of control monocytes. In contrast, in CADL and CAH no disturbance was observed in locomotion against homologous activated serum whereas the serum of those patients was able to inhibit the chemotaxis of control monocytes. The adherence capacity was only depressed in the PBC patients. Our results suggest that in PBC there is a functional monocyte disturbance which in contrast to the situation in other hepatopathies, seems to be primary and may arise at the cellular level.