title: Mechanisms of tissue injury in autoimmune liver diseases.
abstract: Autoimmune diseases affecting the liver are mainly represented by autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The characteristic morphologic patterns of injury are a chronic hepatitis pattern of damage in AIH, destruction of small intrahepatic bile ducts in PBC and periductal fibrosis and inflammation involving larger bile ducts in PSC. The factors responsible for initiation and perpetuation of the injury in all the three autoimmune liver diseases are not understood completely but are likely to be environmental triggers on the background of genetic variation in immune regulation. In this review, we summarise the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying the breakdown of self-tolerance in autoimmune liver diseases.
authors.affiliation: NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Liver Disease and Centre for Liver Research, Institute of Biomedical Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, B15 2TT.
authors.forename: Evaggelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Liaskou
authors.forename: Gideon M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Hirschfield
authors.forename: M Eric
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gershwin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*
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