Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and
The Children's Hospital have taken a big step toward
understanding what causes one of the most serious liver diseases
in infants. The disease is called biliary atresia, It blocks the
bile ducts in young infants, through which bile, crucial for
digestion, flows to the small intestine. The disease is rare ?
it strikes in about one in 10,000 births. But it's life-
threatening. "It is fatal if not treated quickly," says Cara
Mack, MD, who led the CU research. Surgical removal of the
blocked main bile duct can buy time but ultimately the treatment
in the majority of cases is a liver transplant during infancy or
childhood, a procedure that is both complicated and expensive.
Until now, doctors weren't sure what caused biliary atresia,
which is important to know in order to develop better
treatments. The CU researchers propose that an infection late in
the third trimester of pregnancy or soon after birth initiates
the bile duct injury. The body fights of