D. Iwami et al., ABNORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF NERVE-FIBERS IN THE LIVER OF BILIARY ATRESIA, Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine, 181(1), 1997, pp. 57-65
We investigated changes in the pattern of hepatic innervation in liver
specimens from 15 infants with biliary atresia and 4 age-matched cont
rols by immunohistochemical methods. In the control, nerve fibers iden
tified by immunoreactivity for neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) an
d S100 protein were present around the branches of hepatic arteries, p
ortal veins and bile ducts in the portal areas and the hepatic lobules
. In biliary atresia, NCAM and S100 positive nerve fibers were increas
ed in the vicinity of the hepatic arteries and the portal veins in the
enlarged portal areas, while no nerve fibers were observed around bil
e ducts and periportal ductules which became NCAM positive. No innerva
tion in the lobules was seen in any cases regardless of the histologic
al alteration. These findings may suggest that the abnormal innervatio
n in the liver with biliary atresia does not occur as a result of stru
ctural changes in liver architecture caused by portal fibrosis and inf
lammation, but is associated with immaturity or malformation of hepati
c innervation in the patients.