Antifibrotic effects of a tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 antibody on established liver fibrosis in rats.

Liver fibrosis is characterized by increased synthesis, and decreased degradation, of extracellular matrix (ECM) within the injured tissue. Decreased ECM degradation results, in part, from increased expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), which blocks matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity. TIMP-1 is also involved in promoting survival of activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), a major source of ECM.

Development of an ultrasensitive noncompetitive hybridization-ligation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the determination of phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotide in plasma.

An ultrasensitive noncompetitive hybridization-ligation heterogeneous enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed for the quantitation of antisense phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides in plasma using a 96-well plate format. The principle of the assay is based on heterogeneous noncompetitive binding of the analyte to a template probe, followed by addition of signal probe via ligation and detection using a fluorescence microtiter plate reader. The result showed no significant interference noted from untreated human plasma.