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Absence of Maternal Microchimerism in Regional Lymph Nodes of Children With Biliary Atresia. OBJECTIVE: Maternal lymphocytes have been cited as a potential cause of infantile biliary atresia (BA). When hepatoportoenterostomy is performed, locoregional lymphadenopathy is frequently encountered. METHODS: We screened enlarged nodes from 6 consecutive nonsyndromatic BA patients (age: 68 days ± 18.9 days) for maternal elements using DNA fingerprinting with short tandem repeat analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for allelic (single nucleotide) sequence polymorphisms. RESULTS: Although being partly positive in infants' peripheral blood, no maternal microchimerism could be demonstrated in any of the lymph nodes. CONCLUSION: This result challenges the hypothesis that maternal cells play a role in hilar lymphadenopathy of children with BA.