Publications by authors named "A Ferrari-Bravo"

Major hepatic resection in cirrhotic patients is associated with impaired liver regeneration and failure, leading to high peri-operative mortality. In this work, the causes of defective regeneration in cirrhotic liver and the utility of IL-6 treatment were investigated in an experimental model combining cirrhosis and partial hepatectomy in the rat. Relative to normal controls, decompensated cirrhotic animals showed decreased survival, while compensated cirrhotic animals showed similar survival but reduced hepatic DNA synthesis and newly regenerated liver mass amount.

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Background: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is an unusual tumour.

Methods: The clinicopathological data of 67 patients with ICC and combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (HCC-ICC) are presented.

Results: HCV-HBV infection was present in 37.

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Numerous animal studies simulating liver injury have demonstrated that interleukin-6 (IL-6) exerts a protective effect. This study was designed to further analyze the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective role of IL-6 in a rat model of liver ischemia/reperfusion injury. We show that IL-6: (i) at high doses reduces cell damage which occurs in ischemic-reperfused liver, while at low doses displays only a limited protective capacity, (ii) anticipates and enhances hepatocyte compensatory proliferation seen in ischemic-reperfused liver also at a low, more pharmacologically acceptable dose, (iii) sustains the acute phase response which is dampened in ischemic-reperfused liver, (iv) strengthens the heat shock-stress response shown by ischemic-reperfused liver and (v) overcomes the dysfunctions of the unfolding protein response found in ischemic-reperfused liver.

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Background And Aim: The surgical management of IPMT is based upon a preoperative suspicion of malignancy, that is difficult to obtain from the available diagnostic tools.

Methods: Telomerase gene expression was investigated by means of hTERT/RT-PCR on total RNA from peripheral blood, tumour and non-tumour pancreatic samples of 2 patients with IPMT.

Results: Histological diagnosis was mild-grade dysplasia in the first case and invasive carcinoma in the second.

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Twenty-three patients with acute diverticulitis complicated by pericolic or paracolic abscesses (Hinchey stage I-II) after a first phase of medical treatment were treated with deferred elective resection of the descending colon and sigmoid plus colorectal anastomosis performed on average 30 days after the onset of the acute episode. The pathologist's investigation of the surgical specimens demonstrated persistence of severe inflammatory lesions despite the apparently satisfactory clinical outcome. These data explain the frequent recurrences and indicate surgical treatment as being the only therapy capable of definitively resolving the condition.

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