Table 2.

Major findings of the studies investigating the role of E. coli infection in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC)

		Reference
Clinical	Women with PBC have more frequently recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI) compared to women with other liver diseases	[88–91]
Epidemiological	Large-scale epidemiological studies have shown that UTI is an independent risk factor associated with PBC	[112, 113, 127]
	A history of UTI precedes the development of PBC for several years	[129]
Immunological	Women with recurrent UTI have, but without evidence of liver involvement, have detectable AMA and PBC-specific ANA	[80, 89]
	E. coli mimics and human PDC-E2 are cross-recognised by antibodies and T cells of patients with PBC	[66, 84, 85]
Animal studies	Recurrent E. coli infection can induce in animals the production of AMA and histological features compatible with PBC	[156]

AMA anti-mitochondrial antibodies, ANA anti-nuclear antibodies