Experimental model of infantile obstructive cholangiopathy using 1,4-phenylenediisothiocyanate.

Inflammatory processes on the hepato-biliary system may play an important role in the pathogenesis of infantile obstructive cholangiopathy (including biliary atresia, neonatal hepatitis and bile duct dilatation). A model of the disease was produced in rats using 1,4-phenylenediisothiocyanate (P.D.T.) P.D.T. was given to five groups of rats of different developmental stages from the fetal stage. Changes in the hepato-biliary system due to P.D.T. were compared histo-pathologically in 97 rats. Three groups of rats given P.D.T. after birth showed characteristic dilatation of the extrahepatic bile ducts with inflammation. One group of rats given P.D.T. during the fetal period showed thickening and fibrosis of the wall of the extrahepatic bile ducts without dilatation. The last group of rats given P.D.T. during the fetal period and again at thirty days postnatally showed stenosis or almost atresia of the ductal lumen due to severe fibrosis and thickening of the extrahepatic bile ducts. This experimental model suggests that the difference in developmental stages of the pathogenic processes may play an important role in the production of different pathogenic features of infantile obstructive cholangiopathy.