Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an inflammatory condition of the liver that has a multitude of clinical presentations from chronic hepatitis to acute fulminant hepatitis. AIH diagnosis is typically suspected after ruling out other causes of hepatitis (such as vial hepatitis, hemochromatosis, Wilson's disease, and primary biliary cirrhosis) through serological tests and by findings of high titers ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the efficacy of etanercept in improving the symptoms and underlying inflammation in patients with tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS). METHODS Fifteen patients with TRAPS were enrolled in a prospective, open-label, dose-escalation study. Patients recorded attacks, symptom severity, and use of ancillary medications in a daily diary. Bloo...

IL-10-related T cell-derived inducible factor (IL-TIF or IL-21) is a new cytokine structurally related to IL-10 and originally identified in the mouse as a gene induced by IL-9 in T cells and mast cells. Here, we report the cloning of the human IL-TIF cDNA, which shares 79% amino acid identity with mouse IL-TIF and 25% identity with human IL-10. Recombinant human IL-TIF was found to activate si...

cant. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to systematically investigate interindividual seasonal variations of CRP in several large populations. In two studies, seasonal variation of CRP was investigated on an intraindividual basis. Woodhouse et al. (2 ) reported higher CRP concentrations in winter with a peak in March, and Crawford et al. (13 ) found a significant seas...

abstract background and objective: c- reactive protein (crp), as an acute phase reactant and a reliable marker of inflammation, increases due to inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arteritis and infectious conditions. new evidence shows that vitamin d may have important effects on adjusting and reducing the immune responses. the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between ser...

The regulation of al-acid glycoprotein (al-AGP) in rat hepatoma tissue culture (HTC) cells by dexamethasone was assessed by cell-free translation of mRNA and by RNA-DNA hybridization techniques using a cloned double-stranded cDNA probe. The effect of dexamethasone on the mRNA level of aI-AGP was compared with the induction of mammary tumor virus (MTV) mRNA in viral infected HTC cells. The dose-...

Hepcidin, a recently discovered antimicrobial peptide synthesized in the liver, was identified to be the key mediator of iron metabolism and distribution. Despite our knowledge of hepcidin increased in recent years, there are only limited data on hepcidin regulation during systemic inflammatory response in human subjects. In a prospective study, the time course of plasma hepcidin was analyzed i...

Independent of de novo protein synthesis, interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and dexamethasone caused immediate stimulation of transcriptional activity of most major acute phase plasma protein genes in the rat hepatoma H-35 cells. However, activation of alpha 2-macroglobulin and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein genes were delayed by 2-4 h and required ongoing protein synthesis. The hormones also increased ...

An in vitro cell culture system utilizing continuous human liver cells has been developed which, upon specific induction, will respond by synthesizing, de novo, the prototype acute phase reactant, C-reactive protein (CRP). Induction of CRP in vitro is not brought about by the types of hormones, steroids, and chemicals which affect other acute phase proteins. In particular, interleukin-1 thought...

The serum precursor SAA of the secondary amyloid protein AA has been detected by solid-phase radioimmunoassay as a normal serum alpha-globulin of mol wt 160,000, which dissociates to a more stable 12,500 dalton moiety on treatment with formic acid. In 12 strains of mice, including T-cell-deficient nude mice, treated with the amyloid-inducing agents lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or casein, SAA behave...