Lymphocyte suppressor cell activity in acute and chronic liver disease.

We investigated lymphocyte suppressor cell activity in 53 patients with acute and chronic liver diseases. Suppressor cells were generated by preincubation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) with concanavalin A (Con A) for 48 hr. Suppressor cell activity was evaluated by inhibition of Con A-stimulated blast transformation and by inhibition of pokeweed mitogen-induced immunoglobulin (Ig) synthesis of fresh allogeneic normal PBM in the second-set cultures. Of 29 patients with chronic active liver diseases (CALD), defective suppressor cell activities were observed in eight cases (28%) for Ig synthesis and 16 cases (55%) for blast transformation study. The suppressor cell activities were decreased in two (22%) of nine cases with chronic persistent hepatitis and one (17%) of six cases with inactive cirrhosis for both Ig synthesis and blast transformation. In contrast, suppressor activities were inducible in all nine patients with acute viral hepatitis. The histocompatibility antigen DR4 was significantly increased in CALD patients, but there was no correlation between this antigen and suppressor cell activity. These findings suggest that altered lymphocyte suppressor cells in patients with CALD may contribute to the continuing liver cell injury in this disease.