Journal of Cancer Research and Immuno-Oncology
Open Access
ISSN: 2684-1266
ISSN: 2684-1266
Department of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Research Article
Increased PD-1 Expression in Livers Associated with Anti-PD-1 AntibodyInduced Hepatotoxicity
Author(s): Miro Saarela, Ana Lleo, Luca Di Tommaso, Hanna Raunio, Krista Kankaanranta, Katri Vuopala, Aino Ronka, Essi Parviainen, Sini Nurmenniemi, Raija Kallio, Arja Jukkola and Katri S. Selander*
Vanishing Bile Duct Syndrome (VBDS) is a serious drug induced liver injury characterized by chronic cholestasis and loss of intrahepatic bile ducts. VBDS has been reported also following checkpoint inhibitor treatment. We compared CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD20+, CD56+, PD-1+ and PD-L1+ lymphocyte infiltrates in liver biopsies of patients that encountered VBDS (n=2) or hepatotoxicity (n=3) after pembrolizumab-(n=4) or nivolumab-(n=1) treatment with samples from normal liver (n=10), non-alcohol steatohepatitis (NASH, n=10), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC, n=10) or pembrolizumab-treated patients without adverse events (n=2). We also studied direct growth effects of pembrolizumab on primary human intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells (HIBEpiC) in vitro. Liver sections of all checkpoint inhibitor-treated patie.. View More»