Liver transplantation restores endocrine cells in patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, Portuguese type patients' endocrine cell content in the stomach and duodenum before and after liver transplantation, and to relate the findings to the patients' gastrointestinal disturbances. METHODS: Ten liver-transplanted familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, Portuguese type patients and 10 healthy controls were seen. Endocrine cells were identified by immunohistochemistry and quantified with computerized image analysis. The activity of the cells was appraised by measurements of the cell secretory index and nuclear area. Clinical symptoms were obtained from the patients' medical records. RESULTS: After transplantation, a significant increase of several endocrine cell types were noted, and the pretransplant depletion of several types of endocrine cells disappeared. For no type of endocrine cell was any difference compared with controls noted after transplantation. There was no significant decrease of the amount of amyloid in the biopsies after liver transplantation. The patients' symptoms remained generally unchanged after transplantation, although a substantial time lapse between pretransplant evaluation and transplantation was present. CONCLUSIONS: Liver transplantation restores the endocrine cells in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. The restoration was not correlated with an improvement of the patients' symptoms. No decrease of the amyloid deposits was noted.