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.