Serum immunoglobulin E levels in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

Serum IgE levels were measured in 22 symptomatic adults with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and 19 asymptomatic female adults with positive serum mitochondrial antibody tests. Control populations included 45 adult patients with chronic liver disease consisting of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (N = 15), alcoholic liver disease (N = 15), or miscellaneous cholestatic liver disorders (N = 15), and 87 healthy adult hospital personnel. Fourteen of 22 (64%) patients with PBC had low (< 10 KU/L) or undetectable serum IgE levels, compared to 12 of 45 (27%) control patients with liver disease ( p < 0.005) and 39 of 87 (45%) healthy control subjects ( p = 0.09). Low serum IgE levels were also found in most (13 of 19 patients, 68%) asymptomatic individuals with positive serum mitochondrial antibody tests ( p < 0.005 and p < 0.05 versus liver disease and healthy control subjects, respectively). In vitro IgE production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells after pokeweed mitogen stimulation was determined in eight patients with PBC and in eight healthy control subjects. After pokeweed mitogen stimulation, one of three, patients with PBC compared to four of four healthy control subjects with detectable levels of serum IgE, produced sufficient amounts of IgE to be detected in culture supernatants. Neither the five patients with PBC nor the four healthy control subjects with undetectable serum IgE levels produced sufficient amounts of IgE in vitro to be detected in our assay system. The results of this study indicate that serum IgE levels are more often low or undetectable in patients with symptomatic PBC and in patients with a predisposition to develop the disease (individuals with positive mitochondrial antibodies) than in patients with other forms of chronic liver disease.