Spontaneous and interferon-induced activity of natural killer cells in patients with liver cirrhosis and chronic active hepatitis

We investigated spontaneous and gamma-interferon stimulated natural killer (NK) cell activity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in patients with chronic liver disease: A significantly reduced NK activity was found in alcoholic liver cirrhosis (LZ) and in chronic active hepatitis (CAH), as compared to healthy control individuals (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.005, respectively). Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or with alcoholic non-cirrhotic liver disease had normal NK activities. Furthermore, ADCC was found to be significantly reduced in patients with CAH (p less than 0.05). The addition of gamma-interferon to peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro induced a similar increase in NK cell activity in all studied groups of patients. The reduced NK cell activity found in patients with LZ and CAH could constitute an important mechanism in the pathogenesis and contribute to the high incidence of virus-associated hepatic malignancies in these disorders.