L16 - Liver disease and liver failure Flashcards
Summarise functions of liver
Synthesis - proteins, clotting factors, vit D, bile
Breakdown - waste removal, NH3
Storage - Vit B12, Vit A, iron, copper
Immune system: Kupffer cells
Liver stores:
Vitamin A (1-2) years supply. Vitamin D (1-4) months Vitamine B12 (1-3) years Iron Copper
Liver and angiotensinogen
Liver synthesises angiotensinogen, a hormone that is responsible for raising the BP when activated by renin.
State some causes of acute liver failure?
Infection: Hep A, B, E
Drugs: paracetamol, halothane (anaesthetic)
Poisoning: amanita phalloides (mushrooms)
Immune and metabolic: autoimmune hepatitis, Wilson’s disease. acute fatty liver or pregnancy
Other:
Budd Chiari
Ischaemic hepatitis
Trauma
Budd Chiari
Caused by occlusion of the hepatic veins that drain the liver. Presents with triad of: - abdominal pain - ascites - liver enlargement
Hepatic hydrothorax
Presence of a pleural effusion in a patient with cirrhosis who do not have any other reasons to have pleural effusion.
What is hepatic encephalopathy?
Brain dysfunction caused by liver insufficiency.
Sarcopenia
Syndrome characterised by progressive and generalised loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength and it strictly correlated with physical disability, poor quality of life and death.
Describe how hereditary haemochromatosis occurs?
- Mutations in HFE gene
- HFE product invovled in intestinal iron uptake
- caused excessive intestinal absorption of iron
- accumulation of iron in liver and pancreas
Describe how Wilson’s disease occurs?
- Mutation in ATP7B
- ATP7B is metal iron transporter
- accumulation of copper in liver, brain (esp. basal ganglia) and eyes (Kayser-Fleischer rings)
Summarise the degradation of haemoglobin?
- Haem —-(haem oxygenase)—-Biliverdin—-(biliverdin reductase)—-Bilirubin
- Bilirubin bound to serum albumin, transported to liver
- Carrier mediated bilirubin uptake at sinusoidal membrane
- Conjugation with 1 or 2 molecules of glucuronic acid by bilirubin uridine disphosphate glucuronyl transferase (RER)
- Excretion of water soluble non-toxic bilirubin glucuronides into bile
What occurs to bilirubin glucuronoids once they reach the gut lumen?
De-conjugated in gut lumen by bacterial B-glucuronidases.
- Degraded to colourless urobilinogen
Briefly compare unconjugated and conjugated bilirubin?
Unconjugated
- virtually insoluble
- exists in tight complexes with serum albumin
- cannot be excreted in urine
Conjugated
- water soluble
- non-toxic
- loosely albumin bound
- can be excreted in urine
Describe why neonatal jaundice may occur?
- hepatic machinery for conjugating and excreting bilirubin does not occur until 2 weeks of age.
- jaundice may be reduced when breast feeding as breast milk contains bilirubin deconjugating enzymes
What mode of inheritance causes Wilson’s disease?
Autosomal recessive
- mutation in ATP7B gene
- impaired copper excretion into bile
- failure to incorporate copper into ceruloplasmin
Where does most copper absorption take place?
Proximal small intestine.
Duodenum.
How does copper travel in body to liver ?
- absorbed in duodenum and prox. small intestine
- transported portal circulation complexed with albumin and histidine.
- free copper dissociated
- taken up by hepatocytes
What happens to the copper at liver?
- Binds to a2-globulin to form ceruloplasmin, then secreted into blood.
- circulates through blood
- eventually de-sialylated and endocytosised by liver
- degraded with liver lysosomes
- released copper excreted into bile
Deficiency in ATP7B would result in?
- decreased copper transport into bile
- impaired incoporation into ceruloplasmin
- inhibits ceruloplasmin secretion into blood.
Increased non ceruloplasmin bound copper from liver may result in?
Haemolysis
Haemolytic anaemia as copper is toxic o cell memrbanes
Age of onset of Wilson’s disease?
Variable.
Average age 11.4 years/
Movement disorders: tremors, poor coordination, chorea, gait disturbances.
Biocemical diagnoses of Wilsons
- decrease in serum ceruloplasmin
- increase in hepatic copper content
- increased urinary excretion of copper
Describe the appearance of Kayer-Fleischer rings?
- green to brown depositions of copper in descemet membrane in limbus of cornea