Research Group Pediatric Hepatology - Björn Fischler
Pediatric hepatology is a young subspecialty where clinical development has been exceptionally rapid in recent decades. From a situation at the end of the 1980s where morbidity and mortality from liver diseases in children were both significantly high, today over 95 per cent of these patients can be saved to a long life with a high quality.
Decisive steps have been the development of liver transplantation, improved medical and nutritional treatment methods, and refined diagnostics.
The pediatric liver service at Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge has been a national specialty throughout this period and has been responsible for clinical and research efforts in favor of the rapid development. Today, approximately 200 new children with severe liver disease are received per year for investigation and treatment, of which around 10 children per year need to undergo liver transplantation, while the rest can be treated effectively with drugs and specially designed nutrition.
The group's research mainly concerns cholestatic liver disease, viral infections and liver transplantation.
Research studies
Cholestatic liver disease in infants is a serious medical condition with high morbidity and mortality. Knowledge of the mechanisms behind the different underlying diseases is limited, which restricts the possibilities for targeted therapy. We therefore study the pathogenesis, progression and treatment of three of these rare diseases:
Biliary atresia (BA),
where cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been shown to play a role in both the onset and progression of the disease. We and others have demonstrated a potentially beneficial effect on disease progression with antiviral therapy in uncontrolled studies, and we now aim to provide such treatment in a prospective controlled international multicentre study.
Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC),
where we are studying the long-term effects of the drugs that inhibit bile acid uptake in the terminal ileum and thereby reduces the patients’ severe and distressing cholestatic itching, while also lowering serum bile acid levels, which in turn could improve long-term outcomes and reduce the need for liver transplantation.
Alagille syndrome,
where the genetic defect severely disrupts the maturation of normal bile duct cells but also affects several other organ systems, such as the cardiovascular system, eyes and immune system. We aim to study in detail the causes of the increased susceptibility to severe infections in order to identify possible preventive measures, and to use new ophthalmological examination methods to study in detail the structure and blood vessels of the retina.
Above is a summary of research program from the application to ALF 2026
Research group members
Björn Fischler
Adjunct ProfessorConsultant at a university hospital
Henrik Arnell
Affiliated to ResearchMD, Senior Consultant and Head of Section
Afrodite Psaros Einberg
Affiliated to ResearchMD, Senior Consultant
Ulrika Liliemark
Phd StudentConsultant physician
Doctoral student within the biliary atresia and CMV project (Supervisors: Björn Fischler, Afrodite Psaros Einberg, Jan F Svensson).
Feven Dawit
Phd StudentSpecialist Doctor
PhD student within the Alagille syndrome project (Supervisors Björn Fischler, Henrik Arnell, Niklas Björkström, Kristina Teär Fahnehjelm).
Silvia Malenicka
Phd StudentConsultant physician
Doctoral student within the liver transplantation project (Supervisors Björn Fischler, Carl Jorns, Ulla Berg, Antal Nemeth)
Gandom Kharrazi
Phd StudentAssociate Senior Consultant
Doctoral student within the autoimmune liver disease project (Supervisors Afrodite Psaros Einberg, Thomas Casswall, Björn Fischler).