Two types of autoimmune hepatitis, with either ASMA-ACTIN (+) or KLM (+) antibodies have been described in pediatric patients. To assess the relationship between HAV virus infection and autoimmune hepatitis with ASMA-ACTIN (+) 18 patients with prolonged (longer than 3 month duration) hepatitis A (IgM HAV +) were studied, 6 boys and 12 girls, whose average age was 8.5 years (range 2-16). Antibodies were assessed on admission to the protocol and 4 to 12 months later. FAN, ASMA-ACTIN and a-KLM antibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on rat kidney, stomach and liver sections. Anti actin was confirmed by IIF on rat monolayer cultured fibroblasts. Results: 17 (94.4%) of patients evinced hypergammaglobulinemia (range 2-5 g/l). Both FAN and KLM were negative in 100% of cases. ASMA-ACTIN was positve in 17 patients (94.4%), titers being always higher than 1/40 and up to 1/480. In 8/12 patients (72.7%) anti actin antibodies remained positive, although with lower titers, on the second evaluation. In 3 of 4 patients in whom an hepatic biopsy was obtained this showed chronic active hepatitis. Of the 20 patients with typical acute hepatitis. A 9% had ASMA-ACTIN (-) antibodies, with titers up to 1/80.Conclusions: results suggest an association between ASMA-ACTIN antibodies and prolonged hepatitis A in children. Further investigations should help clarify whether anti actin antibody is associated with HAV or this virus is able to trigger autoimune reactions in the liver.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roy, A., Velazco, M., Ciocca, M. et al. Antiactin Antibodies in Prolonged Viral Type A Hepatitis (Hav) in Chilhood28. Pediatr Res 42, 924 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199712000-00061
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199712000-00061