Tacrolimus may induce the production of nucleolar anti-nuclear antibody in liver transplant patients.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Immunosuppressive drugs have been used to prevent graft rejection in most allo-liver recipients and the immune state of these patients differs greatly before and after transplant operation. This study aims at evaluating the immune state of liver transplant patients treated with tacrolimus by investigating the production of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). METHODS A hundred and eighty-eight serum samples from 94 allo-liver recipients treated with tacrolimus and from 94 patients with matched liver diseases were tested for ANA by indirect immunofluorescence assay with HEp-2 cells as substrate. RESULTS ANA were detected as positive in 20.2% of the liver transplant patients treated with tacrolimus, and in 12.8% of disease-matched control patients, but this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.17). However, the frequency of nucleolar ANA pattern in ANA-positive cases was significantly higher in the liver transplant patients (63.2%) than in the control group (16.7%) (P=0.01). CONCLUSION Tacrolimus may contribute to producing nucleolar ANA in liver transplant patients. The autoimmune disease susceptibility of allo-liver recipients treated with tacrolimus requires further studying.