The increased frequency of urinary tract infections in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and the cross-reactivity between the lipoyl domains (LD) of human pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (hPDC-E2) and Escherichia coli PDC-E2 (ePDC-E2) have long suggested a role of E. coli in causality of PBC. This issue, however, has remained speculative. We hypothesized that by generating specific constructs of human and E. coli PDC-E2, we would be able to assess the specificity of autoantibody responses and define whether exposure to E. coli in susceptible hosts is the basis for the antimitochondrial antibody (AMA) response.

中文翻译：

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大肠杆菌和人类 PBC 的病因：抗线粒体抗体和传播决定因素

原发性胆汁性胆管炎 (PBC) 患者尿路感染频率的增加以及人丙酮酸脱氢酶复合物 (hPDC-E2) 的硫辛酰结构域 (LD) 与大肠杆菌PDC-E2 (ePDC-E2)之间的交叉反应性早就提出了E的作用。大肠杆菌在 PBC 的因果关系中。然而，这个问题仍然是推测性的。我们假设通过生成人类和大肠杆菌PDC-E2 的特定构建体，我们将能够评估自身抗体反应的特异性并确定在易感宿主中暴露于大肠杆菌是否是抗线粒体抗体 (AMA) 反应的基础.