Expression of nerve growth factor in hepatolithiasis

Nerve growth factor (NGF) has recently been shown to influence the survival and function of non-neuronal inflammatory cells, possibly through its activity as a colony-stimulating factor. It may also play an important role in acute inflammation and tissue repair. However, no prior report has focused on NGF in chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal and biliary tracts. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of NGF in hepatolithiasis.

Twenty-six liver specimens resected from 22 patients with intrahepatic calcium bilirubinate stones and from 4 patients with intrahepatic cholesterol stones were examined immunohistochemically.

The 22 patients with calcium bilirubinate stones demonstrated NGF immunoreactivity associated with surrounding inflammatory cells that was localized to the epithelia of proliferative peribiliary glands in the ductal wall. However, neither the surface lining of the bile duct nor hepatocytes expressed detectable NGF immunoreactivity. In the cholesterol stones cases in contrast, peribiliary glandular elements and inflammatory cell infiltration were less extensive than those observed in cases of calcium bilirubinate stones, and NGF immunoreactivity was not noted.

These observations suggest that proliferative peribiliary glands express NGF protein in chronic proliferative cholangitis. This is characteristic of intrahepatic calcium bilirubinate stones.