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© 1989 Medical Council on Alcohol

research-article

CONTRASTS IN INTERLEUKIN-1 AND INTERLEUKIN-2 ACTIVITY IN ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS AND CIRRHOSIS

G. L. A. BIRD, KAYHAN NOURI ARIA, HELENA DANIELS, G.J. M. ALEXANDER and ROGER WILLIAMS*

Liver Unit, King's College Hospital School of Medicine and Dentistry Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, U.K.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed

Received 17 May 1989; accepted 22 August 1989

To investigate whether disordered immune function, as shown by abnormalities in lymphokine production, is present in alcoholic liver disease, interleukin-1 and interleukin-2 activity were assayed in a group of patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis in the absence of underlying cirrhosis, and a group of patients with inactive alcoholic cirrhosis. Activitia of both IL-1 and IL-2 in alcoholic hepatitis were similar to those of normal individuals, although in abstinent patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, IL-1 activity was increased and IL-2 activity decreased.

Lymphocyte transformation in response to PHA in patients with alcoholic hepatitis was significantly impaired when compared with normal controls, and addition of exogenous IL-2 did not correct this impaired response over a wide range of concentrations of both PHA and IL-2.

These observations suggest the underlying defects in cell mediated immunity in acute alcoholic hepatitis, assessed by blast transformation, could be fundamentally different from those of alcoholic cirrhosis and could be secondary to the metabolic effects of acetaldehyde or altered redox potentials on the behaviour of proliferating cells.


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