REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Comparative and Clinical Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicTranslational Research in Veterinary Medicine: Comparative Insights and ApplicationsView all 4 articles
Comparative Review of Copper-Associated Chronic Hepatitis in Dogs and Wilson Disease in Humans
Provisionally accepted
- University of California, Davis, Davis, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract (Words: 183) 56 Copper-associated chronic hepatitis (CAH) in dogs and Wilson disease (WD) in humans are 57 progressive hepatic disorders caused by copper accumulation. Although both diseases share 58 similar pathomechanisms of copper-induced liver injury, they diverge in some aspects of 59 etiology, clinical manifestations, diagnostic methods, and therapeutic strategies. Wilson disease 60 arises from inherited ATP7B mutations while CAH in dogs might be more influenced by excess 61 dietary copper with ATP7B mutations playing a lesser role. Dogs exhibit hepatic disease whereas 62 humans show hepatic and/or extrahepatic manifestations, including neuropsychiatric and ocular 63 signs. Dogs with CAH accumulate copper centrilobularly unlike human patients who develop 64 copper periportally. There are several non-invasive diagnostic tools used to monitor the effect of 65 treatment in humans with WD that are not available for dogs with CAH. Copper chelation and 66 dietary copper restriction are used to treat dogs with CAH and humans with WD, but liver 67 transplantation is not an option for dogs with CAH. This comparative review highlights the 68 similarities and differences between CAH and WD, offering insights that may improve our 69 understanding and management of copper associated liver diseases in dogs and human patients.
Keywords: Copper, Liver, Chronic Hepatitis, Wilson disease, Penicillamine, Chelator, ATP7B, Ceruloplasmin
Received: 25 Aug 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ullal, Choi, Gui and Medici. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tarini Ullal, tvullal@ucdavis.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.