The Western immunoblotting pattern of anti-mitochondrial antibodies is independent of the clinical expression of primary biliary cirrhosis

Anti-mitochondrial antibodies are the serological markers of primary biliary cirrhosis. We analysed the detailed anti-mitochondrial antibodies patterns to see whether the immunological specificities detected at the time of the diagnosis correlate with the histological, clinical and immunological expression of the disease. One hundred and thirty primary biliary cirrhosis patients were studied at the time of presentation/diagnosis. Anti-mitochondrial antibodies reactivity was dissected and evaluated by Western immunoblotting with bovine heart submitochondrial particles as antigenic source. Six different Western immunoblotting patterns have been identified with the following hierarchy: pattern A (anti-PDC-E2 + anti-E3BP, 38.5%), pattern B (anti-PDC-E2 + anti-E3BP + anti-OGDC-E2, 20.8%), pattern C (anti-PDC-E2 + anti-E3BP + anti-BCOADC-E2 + anti-OGDC-E2, 13.1%), pattern D (anti-PDC-E2 + anti-E3BP + anti-BCOADC-E2, 6.9%), pattern E (anti-BCOADC-E, 6.1%) and pattern F (anti-mitochondrial antibodies negative primary biliary cirrhosis, 14.6%). The different patterns were neither associated with peculiar clinical, biochemical, histological and immunological features nor with the Mayo Risk Score. The anti-mitochondrial antibodies pattern at presentation is independent of the stage of the liver disease; therefore, the Western immunoblotting characterisation of anti-mitochondrial antibodies does not seem to be helpful in identifying the clinical, biochemical or histological expression of primary biliary cirrhosis at the time of the diagnosis.