IMR Press / FBL / Volume 7 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.2741/kinnman

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Peribiliary myofibroblasts in biliary type liver fibrosis
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1 Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U402, France
2 Service d’Hépatologie, Faculté de Médecine Saint Antoine, 27, rue de Chaligny, 75571 Paris cedex 12, France
3 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institute, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2002, 7(4), 496–503; https://doi.org/10.2741/kinnman
Published: 1 February 2002
Abstract

Biliary type liver fibrosis develops as part of the wound healing response to bile duct injury in chronic cholestatic liver diseases. The origin of myofibroblasts accumulating together with extracellular matrix around proliferating bile duct structures (referred to as ductular reaction) in the setting of cholestatic injury, has been investigated mostly in the rat bile duct ligation model. Evidence indicates that hepatic stellate cells undergo a myofibroblastic transition following bile duct ligation and that myofibroblastic hepatic stellate cells disclose chemoattraction towards bile duct structures in cholestatic liver. On the basis of morphological studies, nevertheless, the origin of peribiliary myofibroblasts has also been attributed to the activation and proliferation of portal fibroblasts. Bile duct epithelial cells of the ductular reaction actively contribute to the promotion and regulation of biliary type liver fibrogenesis. They synthesize and release a number of paracrine mediators such as transforming growth factor-beta, connective tissue growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor-BB, and endothelin-1 that target different liver cell types, including hepatic stellate cells and portal fibroblasts. Through these interactions, bile duct epithelial cells and peribiliary myofibroblasts cause periportal fibrosis in cholestatic and also probably other types of liver diseases.

Keywords
Bile Duct Epithelial Cell
Biliary Fibrosis
Chemotaxis
Cholestatic Liver Disease
Endothelin
Hepatic Stellate Cell
Liver Fibrosis
Platelet-Derived Growth Factor
Transforming Growth Factor-β
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