Susceptibility to liver fibrosis in mice expressing a connective tissue growth factor transgene in hepatocytes

ZhenYue Tong, Ruju Chen, Daniel S. Alt, Sherri Kemper, Bernard Perbal, David R. Brigstock – 27 August 2009 – Connective tissue growth factor (CCN2) is a matricellular protein that is up‐regulated in many fibrotic disorders and coexpressed with transforming growth factor β. CCN2 promotes fibrogenesis and survival in activated hepatic stellate cells, and injured or fibrotic liver contains up‐regulated levels of CCN2 that are produced by a variety of different cell types, including hepatocytes.

Distinct kinetics and dynamics of cross‐presentation in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells compared to dendritic cells

Anna Schurich, Jan P. Böttcher, Sven Burgdorf, Patrick Penzler, Silke Hegenbarth, Michaela Kern, Andreas Dolf, Elmar Endl, Joachim Schultze, Emmanuel Wiertz, Dirk Stabenow, Christian Kurts, Percy Knolle – 27 August 2009 – Cross‐presentation is an important function of immune competent cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), macrophages, and an organ‐resident liver cell population, i.e., liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs).

Conditional deletion of ferritin H in mice induces loss of iron storage and liver damage

Deepak Darshan, Liviu Vanoaica, Larry Richman, Friedrich Beermann, Lukas C. Kühn – 27 August 2009 – Ferritin plays a central role in iron metabolism by acting both as iron storage and a detoxifying protein. We generated a ferritin H allele with loxP sites and studied the conditional ferritin H deletion in adult mice. Ten days after Mx‐Cre induced deletion, ferritin H messenger RNA (mRNA) was below 5% in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow of deleted mice compared to control littermates. Mice lost their cellular iron stores indicating the requirement of ferritin H in iron deposition.

Strain‐dependent viral dynamics and virus‐cell interactions in a novel in vitro system supporting the life cycle of blood‐borne hepatitis C virus

Hussein Hassan Aly, Yue Qi, Kimie Atsuzawa, Nobuteru Usuda, Yasutsugu Takada, Masashi Mizokami, Kunitada Shimotohno, Makoto Hijikata – 27 August 2009 – We developed an in vitro system that can be used for the study of the life cycle of a wide variety of blood‐borne hepatitis C viruses (HCV) from various patients using a three‐dimensional hollow fiber culture system and an immortalized primary human hepatocyte (HuS‐E/2) cell line.

The membrane‐bound bile acid receptor TGR5 is localized in the epithelium of human gallbladders

Verena Keitel, Kenko Cupisti, Christoph Ullmer, Wolfram T. Knoefel, Ralf Kubitz, Dieter Häussinger – 27 August 2009 – TGR5 (Gpbar‐1) is a plasma membrane‐bound, G protein–coupled receptor for bile acids. TGR5 messenger RNA (mRNA) has been detected in many tissues, including rat cholangiocytes and mouse gallbladder. A role for TGR5 in gallstone formation has been suggested, because TGR5 knockout mice did not develop gallstones when fed a lithogenic diet. In this study, expression and localization of TGR5 was studied in human gallbladders.

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