Abstract

Monocyte function has been studied in a total of 51 patients with biopsy-proven cirrhosis and 35 controls. There was significantly reduced monocyte spreading (p less than 0.05), chemotaxis (p less than 0.02), bacterial phagocytosis (p less than 0.05) and bacterial killing (p less than 0.02) in the cirrhotics compared to the controls. Monocytes from patients with cirrhosis produced significantly less of the lysosomal enzymes N-acetyl beta-glucosaminidase and beta-glucuronidase than those obtained from the controls (p less than 0.02). There was no significant difference in the number of monocytes obtained, the number of macrophage precursors, and the nitro-blue tetrazoline (NBT) reduction between the cirrhotic and the controls. The reduced function appeared to be mainly due to a circulating inhibitory factor and could be corrected by incubation of the cirrhotic cells in serum from control subjects. The response of monocytes from patients with cirrhosis did not differ from the controls in their response to added endotoxin or latex particles suggesting that they are capable of a normal response in the absence of the inhibitory factor. Paired specimens of portal and systemic serum were collected from patients with no evidence of liver disease undergoing vascular surgery. When added to normal human monocytes the portal serum caused a significant reduction in bacterial killing (p less than 0.02) and chemotaxis (p less than 0.05) compared to results obtained in the paired systemic serum. Mixing experiments suggests the presence of an active inhibitor in the portal serum. The results suggest that monocyte function is reduced in cirrhosis apparently due to a serum inhibitor which may have originated from the portal vein. The abnormalities may account in part for the increased susceptibility of these patients to infection.