[The degree of HBV suppression with 24 week telbivudine- or lamivudine-treatment in hepatitis B patients predicts the efficacy of the treatment at week 52].

Objectives: To investigate the possibilities of an association between the degrees of HBV suppression with nucleoside treatments at week 24 and week 52 in hepatitis B patients and to find a useful predictor for treatment efficacy.

Methods: In this phase III, double-blind, multicenter trial, we compared the efficacy of telbivudine treatment with lamivudine treatment in 332 Chinese compensated chronic hepatitis B patients. The patients were randomly assigned to a daily 600 mg telbivudine treatment group or daily 100 mg lamivudine group for 24 weeks.

Effects of lipopolysaccharides stimulated Kupffer cells on activation of rat hepatic stellate cells.

Aim: To study the effects of Kupffer cell-conditioned medium (KCCM) derived from lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment on proliferation of rat hepatic stellate cells (HSC).

Methods: HSC and Kupffer cells were isolated from the liver of Wistar rats by in situ perfusion with pronase and collagenase and density gradient centrifugation with Nycodenz and cultured. KCCM was prepared and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric assay was used to detect HSC proliferation.