Cell-mediated immunity to liver in patients with alcoholic hepatitis.

Mononuclear-cell responses to liver extracts were studied by a migration-inhibition assay in patients with alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis, chronic alcoholism without evidence of liver disease, and in healthy individuals. Patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis demonstrated liver-antigen-induced inhibition of migration (migration index [M.I]equal 0-58 plus or minus 0-08, mean plus or minus S.D.), while patients with cirrhosis, alcoholism, and acute viral hepatitis, as well as healthy volunteers, did not demonstrate such a response (M.I. 0-92 plus or minus 0-13, 0-90 lus or minus 0-10, 0-86 plus or minus 0-18, 0-99 plus or minus 0-04, respectively). It is concluded that cell-mediated immunity to normal or damaged liver tissue may act to perpetuate alcoholic hepatitis and thereby contribute to the development of cirrhosis.