Editorial: Is heterozygosity for a Wilson's disease gene defect an important underlying cause of infantile and childhood copper toxicosis syndromes?

In this editorial, I would like to provide basic information on two seemingly disparate topics, and then bring them together in a unifying hypothesis that claims one is an underlying cause of the other. The two topics are first, the heterozygous state for a Wilson's disease genetic defect, and second, the occurrence of infantile and early childhood cirrhosis due to copper toxicity. I hypothesize that the latter primarily occurs in the presence of heterozygosity for Wilson's disease, and that this heterozygosity is often an important causal factor.