Prevalence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies in a rural community from northeastern Brazil: a population-based study

Abstract

Non-organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSA) are well-recognized diagnostic markers of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), but can also be observed in patients with viral hepatitis as well as in healthy subjects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of NOSA in subjects living in a rural community in Brazil and to correlate their occurrence with the presence of liver disease. Seven hundred twenty-five apparently healthy subjects were randomly selected for assessment of antinuclear (ANA), anti-smooth muscle (SMA), antimitochondrial (AMA), anti-liver/kidney microsome type 1, and anti-liver cytosol type 1 antibodies. Subjects with those NOSA were evaluated for the presence of AIH, PBC, and viral hepatitis. Reactivities for all NOSA, SMA, ANA, and AMA were detected, respectively, in 14, 10, 4, and 0.1% of subjects, with a mean titer of 1:40. NOSA-positive subjects were significantly older and more frequently females. No correlation was observed between the occurrence of NOSA and PBC, AIH, or viral hepatitis. The prevalence of NOSA in Brazilians was 14%. They were usually low titer. NOSA were more frequently observed in females and older subjects and their presence was not correlated with the presence of AIH, PBC, or viral hepatitis.

Low level autoantibodies can be frequently detected in the general Australian population

“…The majority of ASM AAb reactive individuals in this study were scored as 1+ with the features of antibody binding to vessels and glomeruli, in the absence of a tubular binding pattern, consistent with findings by Cunha et al 34 Low levels of PR3 and MPO AAbs are known to be detected in healthy individuals. In this study ANCA were detected in 3.5% of the cohort in agreement with a study by Cui et al 13 b2GPI AAbs were the most frequently detected AAbs in the present study with 14 participants positive for IgM b2GPI AAbs alone.…”

High Seroprevalence of Autoantibodies Typical of Autoimmune Liver Disease in Eastern Ethiopia: Is Chewing of Khat (Catha edulis) a Triggering Factor?

“…In Cameroon, SMA was found in 9%, while only 0.7% were AMA positive [41]. The global prevalence of SMA in the general population worldwide is estimated to be around 10-12% [41–43, 50]; hence, the observed proportions of SMA positive (15.4%) in the present study were higher than anticipated. Of note, the strikingly high overall prevalence of AMA (25.6%) in the present study was more than twenty-fold the global estimates [51–55].…”

“…Although men tend to develop autoimmune hepatitis at a younger age than women and have a higher relapse rate, men appear to have reduced susceptibility to the development of autoimmune hepatitis and a better prognosis than women [40]. Studies worldwide have found women significantly more frequently SMA positive than men [41–43]. However, in the present study, there were no sex differences in the presence of autoimmune markers, which correspond with the previous study undertaken in Ethiopia [17].…”

Hepatoportal Sclerosis in Childhood: Descriptive Analysis of 12 Patients

“…In a recent study from Brazil, seven hundred twenty-five healthy subjects were investigated for non-organ-specific autoantibodies. Approximately 10% of their cohort had positive SMA in 1:40 titer (20). In another study from Malaysia, 101 serum samples of 69 Malay, 18 Indian and 14 Chinese adults were studied for different autoantibodies including anti-nuclear, anti-mitochondrial, anti-smooth muscle and anti-parietal cell antibodies and none of 101 subjects had positive SMA (21).…”