Bid-mediated apoptosis does not contribute to cholestatic liver injury following bile duct ligation

Death receptor-mediated hepatocyte apoptosis has been implicated in bile acid induced apoptosis of hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo. The BH3-interacting domain death agonist Bid is a critical mediator for apoptosis induced by activation of Fas and TNF-R1 death receptors in hepatocytes. Multiple studies have shown that bile acids induce Fas-dependent hepatocyte apoptosis in vitro providing a cellular mechanism for bile acid induced liver injury in vivo. More recent studies suggested that the mechanism of hepatocyte death is almost exclusively oncotic and that the protective effect in lpr mice most strikingly corr…