Citations

Objective: To report the clinical features, treatment, and outcomes of patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced hepatotoxicity. Patients and Methods: In this retrospective observational study, we identified patients with metastatic malignant melanoma seen in consultation and/or treated between March 2011 and March 2016. Hepatotoxicity was assessed using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, v4.0. Results: Seventeen patients were identified as having any degree of hepatotoxicity by history (grade 1 to 4). Twelve of 17 were diagnosed after ipilimumab, 3 of 17 were diagnosed after pembrolizumab, and 2 of 17 after ipilimumab combined with nivolumab. Median time from first dose of immune therapy to hepatotoxicity was 52 days. Clinical symptoms were variable: asymptomatic, fatigue, myalgias, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, confusion, and/or jaundice. Eight patients had concurrent adverse events including colitis, hypophysitis, pneumonitis, and/or rash. Immune therapy was discontinued in all patients except 3. The patients were most commonly treated with systemic corticosteroids such as prednisone. Immunosuppression was discontinued by taper over a median of 42 days; in 3 patients steroids had to be reinitiated based on clinical or laboratory worsening of liver tests. Normalization of liver tests was seen within a median of 31 days of immunosuppression initiation. One patient with grade 4 hepatotoxicity had normalization with the addition of cyclosporine. Conclusions: Melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors should be monitored regularly for hepatotoxicity. Treatment with discontinuation of therapy and initiation of corticosteroids is indicated with grade 3 or 4 hepatotoxicity. Cyclosporine may be beneficial in steroid-refractory hepatotoxicity.

Interleukin-22 (IL-22) is a Th17 cell hepatoprotective cytokine that is undergoing clinical trials to treat patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activation of macrophage is implicated in hepatocyte cell death and pathogenesis of AH. The role of IL-22 production from macrophage, its regulation by LPS, and effects on alcohol-induced hepatocyte cell death are unexplored and were examined in this study. Low levels of IL-22 mRNA/protein were detected in macrophage but were significantly upregulated by 6.5-fold in response to the tissue reparative cytokine IL-10. Conversely, LPS significantly decreased IL-22 mRNA levels in a temporal and concentration-dependent manner with a maximum reduction of 5-fold. LPS downregulation of IL-22 mRNA levels was rescued in the presence of a pharmacological inhibitor of c-Jun NH 2 -terminal kinase (JNK) and by JNK knockdown. Next, we explored whether macrophage-derived IL-22 regulated ethanol-induced hepatocyte death. Conditioned media from IL-10-stimulated macrophages attenuated ethanol-induced hepatocyte caspase-3/7 activity, and apoptosis as assessed by fluorometric assay and TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining, respectively. This effect was diminished in conditioned media from macrophages with IL-22 knockdown. Cytokine analysis in sera samples of patients with AH revealed that IL-22 levels were significantly elevated compared with healthy controls and heavy-drinking controls, implying a state of IL-22 resistance in human AH. Macrophage-derived IL-22 protects hepatocytes from ethanol-induced cell death. IL-22 downregulation is a new regulatory target of LPS in the pathogenesis of AH.

Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) develops in only a small proportion of heavy drinkers. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this disparity, we conducted a study to define the relationship between AH development and dysregulated immune responses that might be ameliorated by alcohol abstinence. Sixty‐eight AH patients, 65 heavy drinking controls without liver disease (HDC), and 20 healthy controls were enrolled and followed up to 12 months. At baseline, HDC and healthy controls had no significant differences in their plasma levels of 38 inflammatory cytokines/chemokines measured using multiplex immunoassays. However, compared to HDC, AH patients had higher baseline levels of 11 cytokines/chemokines (tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6 [IL‐6], IL‐8, interferon gamma–induced protein 10, IL‐4, IL‐9, IL‐10, fibroblast growth factor 2, IL‐7, IL‐15, and transforming growth factor alpha) but lower levels of the anti‐inflammatory macrophage‐derived chemokine. AH patients also had more activated yet dysfunctional immune cells as monocytes, T cells, and B cells expressed higher levels of cluster of differentiation 38 (CD38) and CD69 but low levels of human leukocyte antigen DR, CD80, and CD86 at baseline. In addition, CD4 T cells produced less interferon‐gamma in response to T‐cell stimulation. Up‐regulated IL‐6, IL‐8, CD38, and CD69 and down‐regulated macrophage‐derived chemokine, human leukocyte antigen DR, CD86, and CD80 correlated positively and negatively, respectively, with disease severity. Longitudinal analysis indicated that levels of IL‐6, IL‐8, CD38, and CD69 were reduced, whereas levels of macrophage‐derived chemokine, human leukocyte antigen DR, CD80, and CD86 were increased in abstinent AH patients. All of the cellular immune abnormalities were reversed by day 360 in abstinent AH patients; however, plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL‐8, IL‐10, fibroblast growth factor 2, and IL‐7 remained higher. Conclusion: AH patients were in a highly immune‐dysregulated state, whereas HDC showed little evidence of immune activation; alcohol abstinence reversed most, but not all, of the immunological abnormalities. (Hepatology 2017;66:575–590).

There are limited data on the natural history of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) in children. We aimed to describe the disease characteristics and long‐term outcomes of pediatric PSC. We retrospectively collected all pediatric PSC cases from 36 participating institutions and conducted a survival analysis from the date of PSC diagnosis to dates of diagnosis of portal hypertensive or biliary complications, cholangiocarcinoma, liver transplantation, or death. We analyzed patients grouped by disease phenotype and laboratory studies at diagnosis to identify objective predictors of long‐term outcome. We identified 781 patients, median age 12 years, with 4,277 person‐years of follow‐up; 33% with autoimmune hepatitis, 76% with inflammatory bowel disease, and 13% with small duct PSC. Portal hypertensive and biliary complications developed in 38% and 25%, respectively, after 10 years of disease. Once these complications developed, median survival with native liver was 2.8 and 3.5 years, respectively. Cholangiocarcinoma occurred in 1%. Overall event‐free survival was 70% at 5 years and 53% at 10 years. Patient groups with the most elevated total bilirubin, gamma‐glutamyltransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase‐to‐platelet ratio index at diagnosis had the worst outcomes. In multivariate analysis PSC–inflammatory bowel disease and small duct phenotypes were associated with favorable prognosis (hazard ratios 0.6, 95% confidence interval 0.5‐0.9, and 0.7, 95% confidence interval 0.5‐0.96, respectively). Age, gender, and autoimmune hepatitis overlap did not impact long‐term outcome. Conclusion: PSC has a chronic, progressive course in children, and nearly half of patients develop an adverse liver outcome after 10 years of disease; elevations in bilirubin, gamma‐glutamyltransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase‐to‐platelet ratio index at diagnosis can identify patients at highest risk; small duct PSC and PSC–inflammatory bowel disease are more favorable disease phenotypes. (Hepatology 2017;66:518–527).

Background: High body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased rates of complications after total knee arthroplasty. To date, to our knowledge, studies have examined risk as a dichotomous variable using specific BMI thresholds. The purpose of this investigation was to quantify implant survival and the risk of common complications after total knee arthroplasty using BMI as a continuous variable. Methods: Using prospectively collected data from our institutional total joint registry, we analyzed 22,289 consecutive knees, in 16,136 patients, treated with primary total knee arthroplasty from 1985 to 2012. The mean BMI of these patients at the time of the surgical procedure was 31.3 kg/m 2 (range, 11 to 69 kg/m 2 ). The Kaplan-Meier survival method was used to estimate survivorship, reoperations, and common complications, with associations of outcomes assessed using a Cox regression model. Results: Utilizing smoothing spline parameterization, we found that reoperation (p < 0.001) and implant revision or removal rates (p < 0.001) increased with increasing BMI after total knee arthroplasty. Increasing BMI also was associated with increased rates of wound infection (hazard ratio [HR], 1.07; p < 0.001) and deep infection (HR, 1.08; p < 0.001) per unit of BMI over 35 kg/m 2 . A BMI of 35 to 40 kg/m 2 was associated with a higher rate of implant revision for aseptic loosening (p < 0.001) and for polyethylene wear (p < 0.001) compared with a BMI of 18 to 24.99 kg/m 2 . There was no correlation between BMI and risk of venous thromboembolism, tibiofemoral instability, or need for knee manipulation. Conclusions: The rates of reoperation, implant revision or removal, and many common complications after total knee arthroplasty were strongly associated with BMI. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level IV . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.