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Gene expression signature for biliary atresia and a role for interleukin‐8 in pathogenesis of experimental disease
Author(s) -
Bessho Kazuhiko,
Mourya Reena,
Shivakumar Pranavkumar,
Walters Stephanie,
Magee John C.,
Rao Marepalli,
Jegga Anil G.,
Bezerra Jorge A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.488
H-Index - 361
eISSN - 1527-3350
pISSN - 0270-9139
DOI - 10.1002/hep.27045
Subject(s) - biliary atresia , neonatal cholestasis , cholestasis , pathogenesis , bile duct , medicine , interleukin 8 , gastroenterology , biology , biomarker , atresia , pathology , biliary tract , inflammation , liver transplantation , transplantation , genetics
Biliary atresia (BA) is a progressive fibroinflammatory obstruction of extrahepatic bile ducts that presents as neonatal cholestasis. Due to the overlap in clinical, biochemical, and histological features with other causes of cholestasis, the diagnosis requires an intraoperative cholangiogram. Thus, we determined whether diseased livers express a gene expression signature unique to BA. Applying stringent statistical analysis to a genome‐wide liver expression platform of 64 infants with BA at the time of diagnosis, 14 age‐appropriate subjects with intrahepatic cholestasis as diseased controls and seven normal controls, we identified 15 genes uniquely expressed in BA with an accuracy of 92.3%. Among these genes, IL8 and LAMC2 were sufficient to classify subjects with BA distinctly from diseased controls with an area under the curve of 0.934 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.84‐1.03), sensitivity of 96.9%, and specificity of 85.7% using their combined first principal component. Direct measurement of interleukin (IL)8 protein in the serum, however, was not different between the two groups. To investigate whether the liver‐restricted increase in IL8 was relevant to disease pathogenesis, we inactivated the signaling of IL8 homologs by genetic targeting of the Cxcr2 receptor in a murine model of experimental BA. Disruption of Cxcr2 shortened the duration of cholestasis, decreased the incidence of bile duct obstruction, and improved survival above wild‐type neonatal mice. Conclusion : The hepatic expression of IL8 and LAMC2 has high sensitivity for BA at diagnosis and may serve as a biomarker of disease, with an important role for the IL8 signaling in experimental BA. (H epatology 2014;60:211–223)