Liver fibrosis is commonly observed in chronic liver disease. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying hepatic fibrosis due to chronic inflammation are not well defined, mainly because suitable experimental models have not been established. We have found that weekly i.v. administration of concanavalin A (Con A) in BALB/c mice brought about a striking alanine aminotransferase increase, r...

Mutations in the gene encoding hepatic nuclear factor 1-alpha (HNF1-alpha) cause a subtype of human diabetes resulting from selective pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction. We have analyzed mice lacking HNF1-alpha to study how this protein controls beta-cell-specific transcription in vivo. We show that HNF1-alpha is essential for the expression of glut2 glucose transporter and L-type pyruvate kinase...

Intrahepatic cholestasis is a serious symptom of liver disorders with limited therapies. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of Huangqi decoction (HQD), a two-herb classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), in the treatment of alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced intrahepatic cholestasis in mice. HQD treatment ameliorated impaired hepatic function and tissue damage. A metabolomi...

A disintegrin and metalloprotease 9 has been reported to play a key role in many diseases. However, the underlying effects mechanisms of alcoholic liver fibrosis have not well understood. To investigate its regulatory molecular mechanism fibrosis, single guide ribonucleic acid targeting sequence mice was adopted by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9 technology inhibi...

This paper reports the evidence for the existence of multiple sites of action of aflatoxin B1 in relation to its inhibition of rat hepatic nuclear RNA synthesis. Two hours after aflatoxin B1 injection (0.3 mg/100 g body weight), rat hepatic nuclear and nucleolar RNA synthesis, in vitro, were inhibited 70 and 90% respectively. When total nuclear free and engaged RNA polymerases were solubilized ...

Differentiation of adult bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) into hepatocyte-like cells is commonly performed by continuous exposure to a cytokines-cocktail. Here, it is shown that the differentiation efficacy in vitro can be considerably enhanced by sequential addition of liver-specific factors (fibroblast growth factor-4, hepatocyte growth factor, insulin-transferrin-sodium selenite, and dexamethas...

Morphological and functional alterations of hepatic mitochondria have been documented in patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Our recent study demonstrated that zinc level was decreased in whole liver and mitochondria by chronic alcohol feeding. The present study was undertaken to determine whether zinc deficiency mediates alcohol-induced mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) def...