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Absence of Maternal Microchimerism in Regional Lymph Nodes of Children With Biliary Atresia
Carsten Engelmann1, Madeleine Maelzer, Hermann Kreyenberg
1*Pediatric Surgery, Klinikum Brandenburg, Medizinische Hochschule Theodor Fontane, Brandenburg †Department of Human Genetics, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover ‡Division for Stem Cell Transplantation and Immunology, Department for Children and Adolescents, University Hospital, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Objective:
Maternal lymphocytes have been cited as a potential cause of infantile biliary atresia (BA). When hepatoportoenterostomy is performed, locoregional lymphadenopathy is frequently encountered.
Methods:
We screened enlarged nodes from 6 consecutive nonsyndromatic BA patients (age: 68 days ± 18.9 days) for maternal elements using DNA fingerprinting with short tandem repeat analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for allelic (single nucleotide) sequence polymorphisms.
Results:
Although being partly positive in infants' peripheral blood, no maternal microchimerism could be demonstrated in any of the lymph nodes.
Conclusion:
This result challenges the hypothesis that maternal cells play a role in hilar lymphadenopathy of children with BA.
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