1. Cell-mediated Immunity to Human Tamm-Horsfall Glycoprotein in Autoimmune Liver Disease with Renal Tubular Acidosis
- Author
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I.G. McFarlane, A. L. W. F. Eddleston, B Portmann, Roger Williams, and D. Tsantoulas
- Subjects
Fluorescent Antibody Technique ,Biology ,Cross Reactions ,Urine ,Autoimmune Diseases ,Hepatitis ,Cell membrane ,Renal tubular acidosis ,Primary biliary cirrhosis ,Immune system ,Antigen ,medicine ,Leukocytes ,Humans ,General Environmental Science ,Glycoproteins ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Immunity, Cellular ,Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary ,Liver Diseases ,Cell Membrane ,General Engineering ,Cell Migration Inhibition ,General Medicine ,Papers and Originals ,Acidosis, Renal Tubular ,Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ,medicine.disease ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Liver ,Immunology ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Glycoprotein - Abstract
Cell-mediated immune responses to Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein isolated from human urine were investigated using the leucocyte migration test. Abnormal responses were found in 91% of patients with active chronic hepatitis or primary biliary cirrhosis with an associated renal tubular acidosis (R.T.A.) but in only 19% of those without R.T.A. In nearly all of a group of patients without autoimmune liver disease and in a control group of normal subjects results were within normal limits. In addition, using an immunofluorescent technique with rabbit antibody to human Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein, it was possible to show the presence in human liver cell membrane of material reacting immunologically as Tamm-Horsfall. These findings suggest that the development of an immune response to this glycoprotein, initiated by release of cross-reacting antigens from damaged hepatocytes, could be the mechanism underlying the occurrence of R.T.A. in some patients with autoimmune liver disease.
- Published
- 1974