The predictive value of FIB‐4 versus FibroTest, APRI, FibroIndex and Forns index to noninvasively estimate fibrosis in hepatitis C and nonhepatitis C liver diseases

Michael Adler, Béatrice Gulbis, Christophe Moreno, Sylvie Evrard, Gontran Verset, Philippe Golstein, Brigitte Frotscher, Nathalie Nagy, Philippe Thiry – 26 January 2008

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy: Amelioration of pruritus by UDCA is associated with decreased progesterone disulphates in urine

Anna Glantz, Sarah‐Jayne Reilly, Lisbet Benthin, Frank Lammert, Lars‐Åke Mattsson, Hanns‐Ulrich Marschall – 26 January 2008 – Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is characterized by pruritus, elevated bile acids, and, specifically, elevated disulphated progesterone metabolites. We aimed to study changes in these parameters during treatment with dexamethasone or ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in 40 out of 130 women included in the Swedish ICP intervention trial (26 randomized to placebo or UDCA, 14 randomized to dexamethasone).

S‐adenosylmethionine prevents mallory denk body formation in drug‐primed mice by inhibiting the epigenetic memory

Jun Li, Fawzia Bardag‐Gorce, Jennifer Dedes, Barbara Alan French, Fataneh Amidi, Joan Oliva, Samuel William French – 26 January 2008 – In previous studies, microarray analysis of livers from mice fed diethyl‐1,4‐dihydro‐2,4,6‐trimethyl‐3,5‐pyridine decarboxylate (DDC) for 10 weeks followed by 1 month of drug withdrawal (drug‐primed mice) and then 7 days of drug refeeding showed an increase in the expression of numerous genes referred to here as the molecular cellular memory. This memory predisposes the liver to Mallory Denk body formation in response to drug refeeding.

Liver: An organ with predominant innate immunity

Bin Gao, Won‐Il Jeong, Zhigang Tian – 26 January 2008 – Blood circulating from the intestines to the liver is rich in bacterial products, environmental toxins, and food antigens. To effectively and quickly defend against potentially toxic agents without launching harmful immune responses, the liver relies on its strong innate immune system. This comprises enrichment of innate immune cells (such as macrophages, natural killer, natural killer T, and γδ T cells) and removal of waste molecules and immunologic elimination of microorganisms by liver endothelial cells and Kupffer cells.

Expansion and de novo generation of potentially therapeutic regulatory T cells in patients with autoimmune hepatitis

Maria Serena Longhi, Francesca Meda, Pengyun Wang, Marianne Samyn, Giorgina Mieli‐Vergani, Diego Vergani, Yun Ma – 26 January 2008 – CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (T‐regs) are central to the maintenance of immune tolerance and represent an immune intervention candidate in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), a condition characterized by impaired T‐reg number and function. We investigated whether T‐regs can be expanded from the existing CD4+CD25+ T cell pool and generated de novo from CD4+CD25− T cells in AIH patients and healthy controls.

Diacylglycerol acyltranferase 1 anti‐sense oligonucleotides reduce hepatic fibrosis in mice with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Kanji Yamaguchi, Liu Yang, Shannon McCall, Jiawen Huang, Xing Xian Yu, Sanjay K. Pandey, Sanjay Bhanot, Brett P. Monia, Yin‐Xiong Li, Anna Mae Diehl – 26 January 2008 – Retinyl ester (RE) stores decrease during hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation and liver fibrosis. Although retinol esterification is mostly catalyzed by lecithin:retinol acyltransferase (LRAT), diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT)1 also does this.

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