Researchers Find Possible Cause Of Liver Disease

A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital has identified an abnormal complex as a possible cause of cirrhosis of the liver in middle-aged women.

The team, headed by Dr. Jack R. Wands, assistant professor of Medicine, reported its findings in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Antigens

"We speculate that the blood complex, a combination of antigens and antibodies, is a cause of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC)," Wands said yesterday.

PBC occurs almost exclusively in women in their 40s' and 50s, and slowly destroys the victim's liver.

Wands said researchers do not know enough about the complex to determine its cause.

Although Wands guessed that the disease may be hormonal or genetic in its origin, he added that it has been linked neither to use of oral contraceptives nor to excessive drinking.

The study was conducted over the last year at Mass General's gastrointestinal unit.