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Review
. 2018 Mar 27:9:609.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00609. eCollection 2018.

Autoantibodies in Autoimmune Liver Disease-Clinical and Diagnostic Relevance

Marcial Sebode  1 , Christina Weiler-Normann  1   2 , Timur Liwinski  1 , Christoph Schramm  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Autoantibodies in Autoimmune Liver Disease-Clinical and Diagnostic Relevance

Marcial Sebode et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Testing for liver-related autoantibodies should be included in the workup of patients with hepatitis or cholestasis of unknown origin. Although most of these autoantibodies are not disease specific, their determination is a prerequisite to diagnose autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and they are components of the diagnostic scoring system in these diseases. In primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), on the other hand, autoantibodies are frequently present but play a minor role in establishing the diagnosis. In PSC, however, data on antibodies suggest a link between disease pathogenesis and the intestinal microbiota. This review will focus on practical aspects of antibody testing in the three major autoimmune liver diseases AIH, PBC, and PSC.

Keywords: antimitochondrial antibodies; antinuclear antibodies; autoimmune hepatitis; primary biliary cholangitis; primary sclerosing cholangitis; serology; smooth muscle antibodies; soluble liver antigen/liver–pancreas antigen.

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