The presence of autoantibodies in 125 patients with cryptogenic chronic hepatitis (CH) was assessed by indirect immunofluorescence (IFL) on standard tissue sections and on Hep-2 cells. Smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) were found in a high percentage of patients without any difference between the anti-HBc positive and the anti-HBc negative subsets, but the antiactin pattern, suggestive of autoimmunity, was detected only in a small number of cases. Low-titer antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were found in CH but also in healthy controls on Hep-2 cells. No significant differences were found in the prevalence of SMA and ANA positivity in various histologic subgroups of CH. Amongst 37 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) the use of Hep-2 cells allowed better evaluation of ANA patterns and identified the multiple nuclear dots (MND) pattern, unrecognisable on tissue sections, in 9 cases.