Absence of Maternal Microchimerism in Regional Lymph Nodes of Children With Biliary Atresia.

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.