PubMed ID:
17631149
Public Release Type:
Journal
Publication Year: 2007
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>
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2007.04.032
Authors:
Falta MT,
Fontenot AP,
Freed BM,
Karrer F,
Mack CL,
Sokol RJ,
Sullivan AK
Studies:
A Prospective Database of Infants With Cholestasis
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.