Chronic liver disease and hepatic calcium-oxalate deposition in patients with primary hyperoxaluria type I

Patients with primary hyperoxaluria type I (PHI) are prone to develop early kidney failure. Systemic deposition of calcium-oxalate (CaOx) crystals starts, when renal function declines and plasma oxalate (Pox) increases. All tissue, but especially bone, heart and eyes are affected. However, liver involvement, as CaOx deposition or chronic hepatitis/fibrosis has never been reported. We examined liver specimen from 19 PHI patients (aged 1.5 to 52 years at sample collection), obtained by diagnostic biopsy (1), at autopsy (1), or transplantation (17). With polarization microscopy, birefringent CaOx crystals located in small arteries, but not within hepatocytes were found in 3/19 patients. Cirrhosis was seen in one, fibrosis in 10/19 patients, with porto-portal and nodular fibrosis (n=1), with limitation to the portal field in 8 and/or to central areas in 5 patients. Unspecific hepatitis features were observed in 7 patients. Fiber proliferations were detectable in 10 cases and in one sample transformed Ito-cells (myofibroblasts) were found. Iron deposition, but also megakaryocytes as sign of extramedullary erythropoiesis were found in 9, or 3 patients, respectively. Overall, liver involvement in patients with PHI was more pronounced, as previously described. However, CaOx deposition was negligible in liver, although the oxalate concentration there must be highest.