Collagen produced during the process of liver fibrosis can induce a hepatocellular protective response through ERK1 signalling. However, the influence of T cells and associated cytokine production on this protection is unknown. In addition, athymic mice are frequently used in hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft experiments but current methods limit our ability to study the impact of liver fibros...

Background Primary hepatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (PHNEC) is extremely rare. The diagnosis of PHNEC remains challenging-partly due to its rarity, and partly due to its lack of unique clinical features. Available treatment options for PHNEC include surgical resection of the liver tumor(s), radiotherapy, liver transplant, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), and administration of so...

Ischemic preconditioning (IP) protects the rat liver. In pigs, in which hepatic tolerance to ischemia is similar to that in humans, information on IP is lacking. Therefore, in enflurane-anesthetized pigs, hepatic vessels were occluded for 120 min (protocol 1) or 200 min (protocol 2) without (control) and with IP (3 times 10 min ischemia-reperfusion each). In protocol 1, cumulative bile flow (CB...

WE PREVIOUSLY reported the immunological protection from humoral rejection afforded to a hamster heart that was heterotopically placed into a rat 2 months after hamster liver transplantation. Furthermore. this protection was so robust that injection of specific hyperimmune serum was unable to reverse this process. We attributed these observations to a switch of the recipient's complement (C) to...

In Japan, glycyrrhizin injections have been used as a therapeutic drug for allergy inflammation since 1948 and for chronic hepatitis since 1979. A 20 ml injection of glycyrrhizin contains 53 mg of monoammonium glycyrrhizinate (40 mg as glycyrrhizin acid), 400 mg of glycine, and 20 mg of L-cysteine. Patients receiving glycyrrhizin injections two or three times per week are forced to accept a dec...

Increased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are the salient features of end-stage liver diseases. Using liver tissues from liver cirrhosis patients, we observed up-regulation of the XBP1-Hrd1 arm of the ER stress response pathway and down-regulation of the Nrf2-mediated antioxidant response pathway. We further confirmed this negative regulation of Nrf2 by Hrd1 ...

Previous studies using metallothionein (MT)-overexpressing transgenic mice have demonstrated that MT protects the liver from oxidative injury induced by alcohol. The mechanism of action of MT is unknown. Because MT primarily binds to zinc under physiological conditions and releases zinc under oxidative stress and zinc is an antioxidant element, it is likely that zinc mediates the protective act...

Biliary complications, especially nonanastomotic biliary strictures (NAS), are a major cause of morbidity after orthotopic liver transplantation. Of all donor and recipient characteristics known to increase the risk of developing NAS, the role of prolonged ischemia times is most extensively described in the literature. However, there is increasing evidence that several other, non-ischemia-relat...

Gamma radiation induces pathological changes in the mouse liver which are dose dependent. Ionizing radiation at lower doses causes hematopoietic syndrome, at higher dose causes gastrointestinal syndrome and central nervous syndrome. Radiation causes inactivation of certain enzymes, denaturation of proteins, interruption of mitosis, chromosomal aberration etc. The severity of symptoms increased ...

Background: The radioprotective effect of Grewia asiatica fruit (GAE) which contains anthocyanin type cyanidin 3- glucoside, vitamin C, A, minerals, carotenes and dietary fibers etc was studied. Materials and Methods: For study Swiss albino mice were divided into five groups-1. Control (vehicle treated) 2. GAE treated (700 mg / Kg. b.wt / day for fifteen days), 3. Irradiated (5 Gy), 4. G...