“Auto-immune” Chronic Hepatitis

It is believed that active chronic hepatitis in most cases is a sequela of liver damage caused initially by the hepatitis virus and that this sequela occurs in persons with a genetically based anomaly of immune tolerance. The auto-immune response, once established, tends to be perpetuated because self-reactive immunocytes continue to be stimulated by antigens released from liver cells damaged initially by nonimmune agents but damaged thereafter by the autoimmune reaction itself.