Maternal microchimerism in the livers of patients with Biliary atresia

Abstract

Background: Biliary atresia (BA) is a neonatal cholestatic disease of unknown etiology. It is the leading cause of liver transplantation in children. Many similarities exist between BA and graft versus host disease suggesting engraftment of maternal cells during gestation could result in immune responses that lead to BA. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and extent of maternal microchimerism (MM) in the livers of infants with BA.

Maternal Microchimerism in Juvenile Tonsils and Adenoids

“…The results of these reports are summarized in Table 4. In studies on tissues from abortions, biopsies, and autopsy material, MMc have been demonstrated in a wide range of tissues such as skin, heart, liver, spleen, thymus, thyroid, and pancreas (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)29,30,31), and no particular organ has an apparent predilection for MMc. These reports vary greatly with regard to the frequency of MMc and cite frequencies from 0 to 100%, although several limitations impacted the validity of the published results.…”

“…As with fetal microchimerism, maternal cells in the offspring have been associated with different autoimmune diseases especially conditions that arise in children (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). Because the fate of those semiallogenic maternal cells is largely unknown, particularly in tissues of healthy individuals, we sought to investigate whether maternal cells were present in lymphoid tissues of children during infancy in an attempt to elucidate an eventual role of MMc in immune development.…”

Maternal microchimerism in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

“…We used a previously reported method of FISH 28 using X and Y-chromosomes probes. Y-chromosomes were stained with a green fluorescent dye, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC).…”

Maternal microchimerism in biliary atresia

“…In 2004, Suskind et al 11 demonstrated a higher presence of maternal cells in the livers of patients with BA compared with that in the livers of patients with neonatal hepatitis. In addition, the existence of maternal microchimerism in BA was confirmed by two other researchers.…”