Chronic liver allograft rejection and obliterative arteriopathy: possible pathogenic mechanisms.
Year: 1989
Type: article
Abstract: Chronic rejection is a major cause of late liver allograft failure. Generally accepted pathologic features of this condition include chronic obliterative arteriopathy (COA) and bile duct loss. The mechanisms involved in graft damage are poorly understood.
Bile duct loss has been attributed to direct lymphocytotoxic attack, which seems reasonable considering the histologic appearance of rejection. However, ischemia due to COA has been largely overlooked as a cofactor in the pathogenesis of bile duct loss. It is known that the hepatic artery is the only blood supply to the intra-hepatic biliary tree.
In this study, we studied the effect of ischemia on bile duct loss by studying the relationship between the degree of COA and intensity of bile duct loss. Furthermore, in order to get a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of COA, we analyzed the lineage of cells comprising COA lesion in heart, liver and kidney allografts. Special attention was focused on detecting cells with phenotypic characteristics of dendritic cell (DC) lineage. DC play a pivotal role in the initiation of immunological reactions.
Source: PubMed
Authors: S Oguma, T Zerbe, B Banner, S Belle, T E Starzl, A J Demetris
Institution: UPMC Presbyterian
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2106779423