Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy specific liver disorder characterized by maternal pruritus in the latter half of the pregnancy, raised serum bile acids and increased rates of adverse fetal outcomes. Maternal effects of ICP are mild; however, there is a clear association between ICP and higher frequency of fetal distress, preterm delivery, and sudden intrauterin fetal ...

Hepatocyte gap junction proteins, connexins (Cxs) 26 and 32, are downregulated during obstructive cholestasis (OC) and lipopolysaccharide hepatocellular cholestasis (LPS-HC). We investigated rat hepatic Cxs during ethynylestradiol hepatocellular cholestasis (EE-HC) and choledochocaval fistula (CCF) and compared them with OC and LPS-HC. Levels (immunoblotting) and cellular distribution (immunofl...

Background: Cholangiocarcinoma is an invasive biliary malignancy with poor prognosis. Diagnostic accuracy of conventional methods is low which is mainly due to the specific anatomy of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of biochemical profile and tumor marker of the bile in patients with malignant cholestasis compared to that of choledocholithiasis. ...

There is a need for new noninvasive biomarkers (NIBMs) able to assess cholestasis and fibrosis in chronic cholestatic liver diseases (CCLDs). Tumorigenesis can arise from CCLDs. Therefore, autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens (TAA) may be early produced in response to abnormal self-antigen expression caused by cholestatic injury. Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR-3) ha...

Cholestasis, an impairment of bile outflux, frequently occurs in liver diseases. In this process, an overaccumulation of bile acids causes hepatocyte necrosis and apoptosis, leading to advanced hepatitis. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is mitogenic toward hepatocytes, but it is still unclear whether HGF has physiological and therapeutic functions during the progression of cholestasis. Using ant...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Inchin-ko-to (ICKT) is an herbal medicine used in Japan to treat jaundice and liver fibrosis.We investigated the effect of oral ICKT supplementation on endotoxin-induced cholestasis in the rat. MATERIAL AND METHODS Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection (1 mg/kg body weight i.p.) was used as a model of sepsis-induced cholestasis. Bile flow, biliary bile salt secretion, biliar...