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  • Title: Immune reactivity is more suppressed in patients with alcoholic liver disease than in patients with virus-induced cirrhosis after CRH stimulation.
    Author: Eggers V, Pascher A, Althoff H, Thiele S, Mütze J, Selignow J, Neuhaus P, Spies CD.
    Journal: Alcohol Clin Exp Res; 2006 Jan; 30(1):140-9. PubMed ID: 16433742.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: The most frequent diagnoses for liver transplantation are virus-induced cirrhosis (VIC) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD), after an abstinence period of at least 6 months. Chronic ethanol consumption has been linked to an abnormal neuroendocrine-immune axis and to an altered surgical stress response inducing an increased infection rate. Preoperative stress testing might be relevant to detect stress-induced immune alteration. The aim of this study was to investigate the preoperative stress-like response to corticotrophin-releasing-hormone challenge (CRH) of patients with ALD compared with patients with VIC and their immune sequelae. METHODS: Nine patients with ALD and 8 patients with VIC were included in this clinical study prior to transplantation. All patients received CRH in the morning. Blood samples were drawn before and after stress testing. RESULTS: In response to CRH, the ALD patients showed a significant decrease in the plasma interleukin (IL)-6/IL-10 ratio. After lipopolysaccharide stimulation of whole blood from CRH-challenged ALD patients, IL-10 increased significantly. The cytotoxic T1-(Tc1) to cytotoxic T2 (Tc2) ratio was significantly decreased in ALD patients after the stress test. Infections occurred significantly more often in ALD patients within the past year before study inclusion. CONCLUSIONS: ALD patients showed a stronger anti-inflammatory immune status and response than VIC patients. This difference was associated with a higher infection rate despite a median alcohol abstinence time of 3.5 years. Although an altered immune response is well known among patients with actual alcohol-use disorders, to the best of our knowledge, it is not described in patients after such a long abstinence time.
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