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Publication Information
Affiliation
Sections of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Children's Hospital, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado 80218, USA. cara.mack@uchsc.edu <cara.mack@uchsc.edu>
Authors
Falta MT, Fontenot AP, Freed BM, Karrer F, Mack CL, Sokol RJ, Sullivan AK
Studies
Citation
Mack CL, Falta MT, Sullivan AK, Karrer F, Sokol RJ, Freed BM, Fontenot AP. Oligoclonal expansions of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells in the target organ of patients with biliary atresia. Gastroenterology 2007 Jul;133(1):278-87. Epub 2007 Apr 20.Abstract
Biliary atresia is an inflammatory, fibrosclerosing neonatal cholangiopathy, characterized by a periductal infiltrate composed of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. The pathogenesis of this disease has been proposed to involve a virus-induced, subsequent autoreactive T cell-mediated bile duct injury. Antigen-specific T-cell immunity involves clonal expansion of T cells expressing similar T-cell receptor (TCR) variable regions of the beta-chain (Vbeta). We hypothesized that the T cells in biliary atresia tissue expressed related TCRs, suggesting that the expansion was in direct response to antigenic stimulation.