@article{998e2b13ca8d43e992471f75296b0504,
title = "ELECTRON MICROSCOPICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SERUM-HEPATITIS (S.H.) ANTIGEN IN PRIMARY BILIARY CIRRHOSIS",
abstract = "Particles identical to those associated with S.H. antigen were found by electron microscopy in the sera of 11 out of 12 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. Antigen and/or antibody to S.H. antigen or antiserum were found in 9 out of 10 cases by immunological methods. It is suggested that immune complexes involving an antigen similar to or identical with S.H. antigen may be present in primary biliary cirrhosis, and that it may be important in the pathogenesis of the disease.",
author = "Kai Krohn and Jokelainen, {P. T.} and Finlayson, {N. D.C.} and Anderson, {K. E.} and Prince, {A. M.}",
note = "Funding Information: may contain s.H. antigen in cases of P.B.C. suggests that they could be intimately related to the disease process. It has been suggested 16 that some diseases associated with immunological deficiency predispose to the devel- opment of a chronic antigen-carrier state. It might be that this applies to P.B.c. However, there is no clinical evidence to suggest that our patients were unusually susceptible to infectious diseases. Furthermore, the incidence of chronic s.H. antigenaemia in patients with major immunological deficiency is not as high as that observed here.5 ,16 Liver damage in P.B.c. could be the result either of continuing replication of a virus, or of the host{\textquoteright}s immune response. Our observation of the simultaneous occurrence of antigen and antibody, and the presence of clumps of particles possibly joined by antibody, are compatible with the existence of immune complexes. The presence of immune complexes has been postu-lated both in acute hepatitis 17 and in active chronic hepatitis with S.H. antigenaemia.6 This latter con- dition and P.B.c. may not be wholly separate clinical syndromes,la and when these diseases are associated with S.H. antigen, the basic pathogenic mechanism may be broadly similar. We wish to thank Dr. W. Eisenmenger, Dr. M. A. Payne, Dr. E. H. Ahrens, and Dr. N. M. Luger for providing materials for these studies. We also thank our technicians, Miss Marthe Fauconnet, Miss Tellervo Huima, and Miss Kathleen Burke for their hard work. We appreciate the reading of this manuscript and the many helpful suggestions by Dr. Henry Kunkel and Dr. Norman B. Javitt. This work was supported in part by training grant T01-AM- 5430 from the National Institutes of Health. One of us (A. M. P.) is the recipient of a career scientist award from the Health Research Council of the City of New York under contract number 1-533. Requests for reprints should be addressed to of Virology, New York Blood Center, 310 New York, New York, 10021.",
year = "1970",
month = aug,
day = "22",
doi = "10.1016/S0140-6736(70)90001-2",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "296",
pages = "379--383",
journal = "The Lancet",
issn = "0140-6736",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
number = "7669",
}