title: Infection as a risk factor in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis: pros and cons.
abstract: Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic and slowly progressive cholestatic liver disease of autoimmune etiology, characterized by injury of the intrahepatic bile ducts that may eventually lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. Evidence suggests cardinal roles for both environmental factors and genetic susceptibility. Nevertheless, the absolute etiology of PBC is unclear, despite recent well-designed case-control studies that reported environmental risk factors, including infectious agents, for PBC. Of the reported infectious agents, some of them are not reproducible and remain controversial. However, infection is no doubt one of the major risks among the environmental factors. This is supported by the fact that infectious agents in autoimmune diseases express antigens resulting in molecular mimicry and xenobiotics that play a role in breaking tolerance. Taken together, recent findings from genome wide assays as well as novel animal models may enable us to better understand the mechanism of pathogenesis responsible for this disease.
authors.affiliation: Gastroenterology and Metabology, Ehime University, Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan. terukuma@m.ehimeu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Teru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumagi
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Yoshiou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Yoichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hiasa
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D017584:Reproductive History; D012307:Risk Factors; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D015262:Xenobiotics / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D015262:Xenobiotics