Many liver diseases such as Alcoholic Liver Disease and Hepatitis C are associated with the production of autoantibodies. One of these autoantibodies is Rheumatoid Factor (RF), which binds to IgG and can aid in host defense. Since little is known about the role of RF in liver disease, we characterized the production of this autoantibody in three murine models of liver damage using alcohol, anti-Fas antibodies and carbon tetrachloride. RF was induced in response to chronic alcohol consumption as well as intraperitoneal injection of anti-Fas antibodies. RF was not produced in response to treatment with carbon tetrachloride for four weeks. Concurrent treatment with an E. coli glycolipoprotein which induces RF protected against liver damage as measured by a decrease in liver enzymes. Importantly, RF induced by this glycolipoprotein did not contribute to damage in the liver, suggesting that in the context of liver damage RF is not necessarily pathological.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84065 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Nowak, Urszula |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Microbiology and Immunology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002261481, proquestno: AAIMR22757, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds