Cincinnati Children's Earns NIH Grant for Biliary Atresia Center
Grant Underscores Status As Leading Liver Care Center
CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has received a five-year grant of approximately $845,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a Center for Biliary Atresia -- a life-threatening condition that is the main reason for liver transplantation in children.
Cincinnati Children's is one of only nine sites in the nation to receive funding to establish a Center for Biliary Atresia. All nine institutions will collaborate as part of a nationwide Biliary Atresia Research Consortium that will establish a database of clinical information and serum and tissue samples from children with biliary atresia.
Cincinnati Children's Center for Biliary Atresia will be directed by Jorge Bezerra, MD, a physician / researcher in the division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
Biliary atresia occurs in infants and usually becomes evident two to eight weeks after birth. Symptoms include unexplained jaundice, dark urine, clay-colored stools and weight loss. The disease destroys bile ducts in the liver, trapping bile and rapidly causing damage and scarring to liver cells.
Biliary atresia accounts for up to 60 percent of children who undergo liver transplantation. Although surgery (Kasai procedure) is successful in many infants, three of every four children who have biliary atresia need a liver transplant before the age of 20.
"The cause of biliary atresia is unknown, and the total annual cost, including transplant care, of treating infants with biliary atresia is estimated to be $65 million," says Dr. Bezerra. "Increased understand of the pathogenesis of biliary atresia and the development of novel therapeutics to treat it would have a major impact on children's health and medical economics in the United States."
Dr. Bezerra will be the principal investigator of two research protocols:
- A one-year study will explore the potential regulatory role of immunity genes in the pathogenesis of biliary atresia. The suppression of these genes may be temporarily restricted to the first three months of life in infants with biliary atresia, according to Dr. Bezerra.
- A three-year study will determine the effectiveness of steroids on the outcome of infants with biliary atresia. It is believed that steroids may improve bile drainage after a Kasai procedure.
Cincinnati Children's has a longstanding reputation as a national leader in pediatric liver care. The Pediatric Liver Care Center at Cincinnati Children's integrates all aspects of liver care and is led by physicians known throughout the world for their expertise in pediatric liver disease.
The Pediatric Liver Care Center is recognized as a Center of Excellence in the management of complex liver disease by many insurance organizations because of quality of care and cost effectiveness. The Pediatric Liver Care Center's research efforts include basic science, clinical and translational research.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a 373-bed institution dedicated to the pursuit of perfect health care. It is the only pediatric organization in the United States to receive the prestigious Pursuing Perfection grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation ranks third nationally among all pediatric centers in research grants from the NIH. The Cincinnati Children's vision is to be the leader in improving child health, through patient care, research and education.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, 513-636-4656,
jfeuer@cchmc.org
