B-Cell Activating Factor Belonging to the Tumor Necrosis Factor Family and Interferon-γ-Inducible Protein-10 in Autoimmune Hepatitis

The aims of the present study were to examine the relationship between serum B-cell activating factor belonging to the tumor necrosis factor family (BAFF) levels and serum interferon-γ-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) levels in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). A total of 80 corticosteroid therapy naive AIH patients were analyzed in this analysis. First, we examined the relationship between pretreatment serum BAFF and IP-10 levels and liver histological findings. Next, we investigated the relationship of pretreatment serum BAFF and IP-10 levels and aspartate aminotransferase value (AST), alanine aminotransferase value, and serum Immunoglobulin G (IgG) level as serum liver inflammation markers. Our study included 14 men and 66 women with the median (range) age of 64 (21–83) years. The serum BAFF levels ranged from 122.5 to 7696.0 pg/mL (median value, 1417.8 pg/mL), whereas the serum IP-10 levels ranged from 142.0 to 4198.7 pg/mL (median value, 640.1 pg/mL). The serum BAFF levels were significantly stratified in each 2 liver inflammation stage. Similarly, the serum IP-10 levels were significantly stratified in each 2 liver inflammation stage. Among 3 serum inflammation markers, AST value had the highest r(s) value in terms of the relationship with BAFF level (r(s) = 0.511, P < 0.001) and IP-10 level (r(s) = 0.626, P < 0.001). In addition, the serum BAFF level significantly correlated with serum IP-10 level (r(s) = 0.561, P < 0.001). In patients without advanced fibrosis (F3 or more), the serum BAFF level significantly correlated with serum IP-10 level (r(s) = 0.658, P < 0.001), whereas in patients with advanced fibrosis, the serum BAFF level significantly correlated with serum IP-10 level (r(s) = 0.542, P < 0.001). In conclusion, both BAFF and IP-10 are useful for predicting the degree of liver inflammation activity in AIH. BAFF and IP-10 may have the common clinical implication for liver inflammation activity for AIH patients.