Abstract #1296

Resemblance of 1H MRS Pattern of Bile to That of Serum May Indicate Alterations in Tight Junctions in Hepatocytes

Tedros Bezabeh¹, Omkar B. Ijare¹, Nils Albiin², Annika Bergquist³, Urban Arnelo⁴, Matthias Lhr³, Ian CP Smith¹

¹MR Research and Development, National Research Council Institute for Biodiagnostics, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; ²Medical Imaging and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; ³Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; ⁴Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Tight junctions (TJs) are associated with hepatocytes and cholangiocytes. Specifically, TJs associated with hepatocytes are concentrated around bile canaliculi, and serve as barrier to keep bile in bile canaliculi away from blood-circulation. Alterations in TJs have been observed in various chronic cholestatic diseases, resulting in increased paracellular permeability leading to regurgitation of bile from biliary tract. In this study, we have observed that ¹H MRS pattern of bile from a few cholestatic patients resembled to that of serum. We hypothesize that this anomaly could be due to alterations in TJs and regurgitation of blood constituents into bile.