Concanavalin A induced suppression of lymphocyte proliferation in chronic liver disease. A study of suppressor and responder populations in autologous and allogeneic systems.

Abnormal T-cell regulation of lymphocyte proliferation may contribute towards tissue damaging mechanisms in chronic liver disease. We therefore studied Concanavalin A induced suppressor cell activity in T-T interaction in 47 patients with chronic liver disease, using both an autologous and an allogeneic system. In the autologous system, no differences were found between those with auto-immune chronic active hepatitis, HBsAg positive chronic active hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease and normal controls. However, several abnormalities were identified in allogeneic cultures with normal lymphocytes which allowed separate analysis of the influence of suppressor and responder cells from patients with chronic liver disease. An abnormality of the suppressor population was found in those with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis and alcoholic liver disease, while the responder population was abnormal in those with autoimmune or HBsAg positive CAH. Failure to demonstrate an abnormality in an autologous system may reflect a combined defect of suppressor and responder populations, and in this study the allogeneic system was a more sensitive index of abnormal cellular T-T interaction.