More than 500 million people worldwide are persistently infected with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus1. Although both viruses are poorly cytopathic, persistence of either virus carries a risk of chronic liver inflammation, potentially resulting in liver steatosis, liver cirrhosis, end-stage liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma. Virus-specific T cells are a major determinant of the outcome of hepatitis, as ... Read more

Two strategies are clinically available to induce selective hypertrophy of the liver: portal vein emboli- zation (PVE) and portal vein ligation (PVL). The aim of this study was to compare the impact of PVE and PVL on liver regeneration. Rats were subjected to 70% PVL, 70% PVE, 70% partial hepatectomy (PH) (positive control), or sham operation (negative control). PVL and ... Read more

Linoleic and a-linolenic acids are the fatty acids designated as ‘‘essential’’ since they are not synthesized by mammalian cells and must be provided in the diet. The recent dietary shift towards the consumption of n-6 (omega-6) at the expense ofn-3 (omega-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is thought to be a primary cause of many diseases related to the Wes- tern ... Read more

Steatosis is assessed according to the pattern and the amount of fatty infiltration in hepatic tissue sections. Traditionally, fatty accumulation has been classified morphologically as macrovesicular or microvesicular. Macrovesicular steatosis is characterised by a single, bulky fat vacuole in the hepatocyte that displaces the nucleus to the edge of the cell. Among a variety of dis- orders alcohol abuse, obesity, ... Read more

Macrovesicular hepatic steatosis has a lower tolerance to reperfusion injury than microvesicular steatosis with an abnormally high ratio of omega-6 (n-6): omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). We investigated the influence of PUFAs on microcirculation in steatotic livers and the potential to minimize reperfusion injury in the macrosteatotic liver by normalization of PUFAs. Ob/ob mice were used as a model ... Read more