Page 4 - OSLO 2017 - ebook

WELCOME MESSAGE

Dear Colleagues,
As organizing committee, we welcome you to this EASL monothematic conference on
‘Cholangiocytes in Health and Disease: From Basic Science to Novel Treatments’.

Bioengineers and physicists are linking up with biologists, translational scientists and
clinicians to get a better understanding of the complexity of the many acquired and
genetic cholestatic liver diseases. Novel genetic information, multimodal imaging, pathway
analysis, digitalized microscopy and reconstructions and novel mouse models shed a new
light on the relation between anatomy and function in the liver in general and in the biliary
tree in particular. Intravital 2-photon microscopy makes us aware of the dynamics and
function of cholangiocytes, bile canaliculi and bile ducts. Metabolomic analysis point to
hitherto hidden spatio-temporal relations and disturbances that play an underestimated
role in the developmental phases of cholestatic liver disease.

The discovery of nuclear hormone receptors and signaling paths, involved in the regulation
of gene expression, give rise to new drugs that suppress disease activity and in the long
run may be able to cure these diseases. An interesting side effect of these developments
is the awareness among researchers and translational scientists that there are remarkable
parallels between cholestatic and metabolic liver disease. Many new drugs, in trial for
traditional cholestatic liver diseases, are also under investigation for the treatment of
non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. These diseases may have more in common than traditional
teaching tells us.

Cholangiocytes not only have a barrier function, separating toxic bile from cells and
structures in and around the bile ducts, but these cells are metabolically highly active and
secrete copious amounts of water, electrolytes and bicarbonate. In addition, bile ducts
harbor stem cells are important for restoration and regeneration of the entire liver. Bile
duct proliferation may play a yet incompletely understood role in epithelial mesenchymal
transition and liver fibrosis. Disturbances of any of these structures and functions may lead
to disease manifestations and may underlie cholestatic liver disease.

Immunology and metabolism for long have been antipodes in the cause-and-effect
discussion. Now it becomes more and more clear that immunological and toxic injury
are closely related and amplify each other. New thinking is required that covers both
fields. Although cholangiocytes reside deep in the liver, functionally these cells are at the
cross roads between environment and self. Bacterial products from the gut are absorbed,

4 Programme & Abstracts • Cholangiocytes in health and disease: from basic science to novel treatments