title: Fetomaternal alloimmunity as a cause of liver disease.
abstract: Fetomaternal alloimmune disease has traditionally been associated with haematological disease such as fetomaternal alloimmune thrombocytopaenia and Rh haemolytic anaemia, but is now known to also be organ specific. Alloimmune membranous glomerulonephritis (AMG) is one of the most well understood organ-specific alloimmune diseases. Neonatal haemochromatosis (NH) is a rare condition characterised by early liver failure in infants, with evidence suggesting that it is also alloimmune. Both AMG and NH appear to involve the passive transfer of alloantibodies to the fetus, which bind a specific alloantigen, fix complement and activate the terminal complement cascade. Although differences between AMG and NH are known, and evidence of the presence of antigen-specific alloantibodies in NH is still missing, we will use AMG as an example of fetomaternal organ specific alloimmune disease, and critically compare this to other emerging evidence that indicates that NH is also alloimmune.
authors.affiliation: Liver Immunopathology and Immunodiagnostics, Institute of Liver Studies and Liver Unit, King's College London School of Medicine at King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill Campus, London, SE5 9RS UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smyk
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Liver, GI and Nutrition Centre, King's College London School of Medicine at King's College Hospital, London, SE5 9RS UK.
authors.forename: Tassos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grammatikopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Thessaly Medical School, 41222 Larissa, Thessaly Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daponte
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, University of Thessaly Medical School, 41222 Larissa, Thessaly Greece.
authors.forename: Eirini I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Rigopoulou
authors.affiliation: Liver Immunopathology and Immunodiagnostics, Institute of Liver Studies and Liver Unit, King's College London School of Medicine at King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill Campus, London, SE5 9RS UK.
authors.forename: Dimitrios P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Bogdanos
keywords: Alloimmune; Autoimmunity; Immunisation; Intravenous immunoglobulin; Placenta