Screening for Wilson disease in acute liver failure: a comparison of currently available diagnostic tests.

Unlabelled: Acute liver failure (ALF) due to Wilson disease (WD) is invariably fatal without emergency liver transplantation. Therefore, rapid diagnosis of WD should aid prompt transplant listing. To identify the best method for diagnosis of ALF due to WD (ALF-WD), data and serum were collected from 140 ALF patients (16 with WD), 29 with other chronic liver diseases and 17 with treated chronic WD.

99mTc-mebrofenin scintigraphy for evaluating liver disease in a rat model of Wilson's disease.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to establish whether (99m)Tc-mebrofenin could noninvasively assess liver function in Wilson's disease.

Methods: Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rats, which reproduce Wilson's disease with copper toxicosis, and their normal counterparts, Long-Evans Agouti (LEA) rats, were studied. Scintigraphic findings were correlated with biliary mebrofenin excretion and residual organ counts and with hepatic copper content, histology, copper excretion capacity, and liver test results.

Early cell transplantation in LEC rats modeling Wilson's disease eliminates hepatic copper with reversal of liver disease.

Background & Aims: The Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rat is an excellent model of Wilson's disease with impaired copper excretion, hypoceruloplasminemia, and copper toxicosis. We hypothesized that early hepatocyte transplantation would improve copper excretion and liver disease in Wilson's disease.

Methods: Normal syngeneic Long-Evans Agouti rat hepatocytes were transplanted intrasplenically into 2-week-old LEC rats.

Correction of liver disease following transplantation of normal rat hepatocytes into Long-Evans Cinnamon rats modeling Wilson's disease.

To establish the efficacy of cell therapy in Wilson's disease, we used the Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rat model with atp7b gene mutation and copper toxicosis. Several groups of LEC rats were established, including animals pretreated with retrorsine to exacerbate copper toxicosis and inhibit proliferation in native hepatocytes followed by partial hepatectomy to promote liver repopulation. Hepatocytes from normal, syngeneic LEA rats were transplanted intrasplenically.

Biliary copper excretion capacity in intact animals: correlation between ATP7B function, hepatic mass, and biliary copper excretion.

Copper toxicosis can occur in the absence of biliary copper excretion. To demonstrate whether biliary copper excretion capacity is correlated with hepatic mass and ATP7B function, we undertook studies in intact animals. Copper-histidine was injected intrasplenically after baseline bile collection, followed by measurement of copper excretion in Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rats lacking atp7b function and in normal, syngeneic Long-Evans Agouti (LEA) rats.