Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Biliary tract

MMP7 — a diagnostic biomarker for biliary atresia

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 15, page 68 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Biliary atresia is a rare, progressive cholangiopathy that affects infants, in which fibrosing injury to extrahepatic bile ducts (EHBDs) in response to an unknown insult leads to cholestasis and jaundice. Despite a low incidence, biliary atresia represents the most frequent indication for liver transplantation in childhood. The aetiology of the condition remains unclear, and emerging evidence has suggested a number of causative factors, including viruses, genetic susceptibility or environmental agents. Early identification of the condition is crucial for good outcomes. However, the current best-performing circulating biomarkers (such as GGT levels) have low sensitivities or no prospective validation, making the identification of minimally invasive, highly discriminatory analytes an urgent unmet clinical need.

To identify potential biomarkers for biliary atresia, Chatmanee Lertudomphonwanit and colleagues used proteomics to screen serum samples obtained from 35 infants at the time of biliary atresia diagnosis and 35 infants diagnosed with intrahepatic cholestasis. Seventy-six proteins were differentially expressed between the two groups; in multivariable logistic regression, the combination of serum levels of MMP7 and GGT differentiated between the two diseases with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.98, outperforming all other individual proteins or serum markers. This high performance was maintained in a separate validation cohort (n = 35 for each condition) with an AUROC of 0.94. On the basis of these data, the researchers estimated that 19.1 infants could be diagnosed with biliary atresia using the MMP7 plus GGT biomarker before a misdiagnosis would occur.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Lertudomphonwanit, C. et al. Large-scale proteomics identifies MMP-7 as a sentinel of epithelial injury and of biliary atresia. Sci. Transl Med. 9, eaan8462 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Hugh Thomas
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Thomas, H. MMP7 — a diagnostic biomarker for biliary atresia. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 15, 68 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2017.175

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2017.175

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research