Bile duct disease articles from across Nature Portfolio

A comprehensive time series characterization of a mouse model of cholestatic liver injury with spatial enhanced resolution omics sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing identifies zonal responses to insult, such as cholangiocyte signaling recruiting lipid-associated macrophages.

CD8 + T cells play an important role in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). In this study, the authors demonstrate that PD-1-expressing CD8+ liver-resident T cells are pathogenic in murine PBC and that targeting these cells using a chimaeric antigen receptor reduces disease severity.

The association between primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been known for decades, but mechanisms of gut-liver crosstalk are incompletely understood. Here, the authors show a colitis-triggered protective circuit suppressing cholestatic liver disease which encourages multi-organ treatment strategies for PSC.

Diagnosis of bile duct cancer often occur in advanced stages, leading to poor survival. Here, the authors combine light scattering and diffuse reflectance spectroscopies in a minimally invasive endoscopic technique for directly assessing the malignant potential of the bile duct lining, and demonstrate 97% detection accuracy.

Cholangiopathies account for a remarkable proportion of liver transplantation cases, reinforcing the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Organoids hold great promise as novel cell-based therapies, although their applicability has not been addressed in humans. Now, a new study has reported the therapeutic effectiveness of cholangiocyte organoids to repair the injured human biliary epithelium.