Previously, we have reported that the active vitamin D metabolite, calcitriol and vitamin D (cholecalciferol), both remarkably inhibit hepatitis C virus production. The mechanism by which vitamin D exerts its effect is puzzling due to the low levels of calcitriol produced in vitamin D-treated Huh7.5 cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Vitamin D supplementation was reported to improve the probability of achieving a sustained virological response when combined with antiviral treatment against hepatitis C virus (HCV). Our aim was to determine the in vitro potential of vitamin D to inhibit HCV infectious virus production and explore the mechanism(s) of inhibition. Here we show that vitamin D(3) remarkably inhibits HCV production in Huh7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Increasing evidence suggests that adipose tissue contains mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) that possess the ability to transdifferentiate into other cell types including hepatocytes, similar to bone marrow-derived stem cells. The existence of precommitted cells in the MSC population may explain transdifferentiation.
Aims: Our aim was to identify a population of putative hepatocyte-like precursor cells in human adipose tissue.