Abnormal lactic dehydrogenase isoenzymes in patients of Indian childhood cirrhosis and their siblings

In fifteen patients with Indian childhood cirrhosis (I.C.C.) total lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was increased as compared with controls. The isoenzyme pattern in I.C.C. patients was quite distinctive from that observed in normal controls and in patients with acute viral hepatitis. In I.C.C. there was a two fold increase in LDH isoenzyme - 1, and a decrease in LDH-2 and LDH-4. Sixty per cent patients with I.C.C. had abnormal bands between LDH-1 and 2 and LDH-2 and 3. Siblings of the patients with I.C.C. had normal total LDH activity, and showed double ringed bands in the region of LDH 1-3. The abnormal bands in patients of I.C.C. are explained on the basis of hybridization of LDH with other serum components.