DADES DE TESIS

Doctorand: JENNY ELIZABETH ARBOLEDA BUSTAN

Directors :

• Teresa Ribalta Farrés

• Asteria Albert Cazalla

DADES DE SEGUIMENT ANUAL 2022-2023

Dificultat d'accés a les instal·lacions/equips/serveis per a realitzar la recerca

No

Has realitzat canvis en la HIPÒTESI

No

Has realitzat canvis en els OBJECTIUS

No

Ha realitzat canvis en la METODOLOGIA

No

Resum dels RESULTATS OBTINGUTS

Twenty-six patients were diagnosed of biliary atresia (BA) during the study period. Fifty-two babies form the
control group. All BA patients had type 3 atresia. In four patients, BA coexisted with other malformations;
those cases were classified as biliary atresia with splenic malformation syndrome (BASM). Two of the control
samples were liver biopsies from patients with diagnoses of hepatic hemangioma and rhabdoid tumor,
obtained away from the tumor lesion. All BA liver samples showed some degree of inflammation, which was
mild in 4 (15.4%), moderate in 15 (57.7%) and severe in 7 (26.9%), while in the control group only 16 cases
(30.8%) presented mild inflammation, the remaining 36 (69.2%) not showing any noticeable inflammatory
reaction (p: less that 0.001). Inflammatory cells in BA cases consisted mainly of round cells with a
predominance of small lymphocytes, variably combined with macrophages, plasma cells, or
polymorphonuclear cells. The inflammatory reaction was concentrated in the fibrous areas of the portal tracts
and fibrous bridges. Lymphoid cells were only occasionally identified within the lobular compartment between
the hepatocytes. In this location, residual small round hematopoietic foci could be observed and were easily
distinguishable from the inflammatory cellularity thanks to cell variability and nuclear sizes. After identifying
some interesting features of inflammation in Biliary Atresia liver and its relationship with SOX9, reported here
last year and now published Expression of protein SOX 9 in Biliary Atresia, in JPGN (see complete reference
in item 8), we have focused on the relationship between the different lymphocyte lineage markers and the
SOX9 score as previously determined (Arboleda 2022), We have found a significant positive correlation
between the SOX9 score and CD8 in portal spaces/fibrous bridges (rho:0.442, p:0.027), and an almost
significant positive correlation between SOX9 score and lobar CD8 (rho:0.372, p:0.067). In contrast, there is

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no significant relationship of CD20 or CD4 with the SOX9 score. Altogether there appears to be an almost
significant difference between lymphocyte markers and SOX9 score (p:0.051 in the Mann-Whitney U test).
Likewise, BA cases with MILD expression of CD138 have higher SOX9 score than those with SCARCE
CD138. These finding suggest that specific treatments targeting CD8 expressing T cells, such as monoclonal
antibodies may retard the inflammatory process that initiates liver failure and the need for transplantation.

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