Clinical relevance of liver membrane antibody in chronic liver disease of children.

Antibody against liver membrane (LMA) was measured using suspensions of rabbit hepatocytes and FITC-conjugated F(ab')2 fragments of affinity-purified goat anti-human IgG. The sera of 43 children with chronic liver disease were examined. Significant titers of LMA were observed for all patients with untreated HBV-negative chronic active hepatitis (CAH). Follow-up studies during immunosuppressive therapy showed that the decrease in LMA titers was delayed as compared to that of non-organ-specific antibodies, and did not correlate with clinical, biochemical, and histological parameters. The detection of LMA is useful in the diagnosis of the CAH subtype which may benefit from immunosuppressive therapy. However, it is of no assistance in the clinical management of autoimmune CAH, since it failed to predict possible relapse after withdrawal of treatment. A pathogenic role for LMA remains thus questionable.