Small intestinal mucosa expression of putative chaperone fls485.

Background: Maturation of enterocytes along the small intestinal crypt-villus axis is associated with significant changes in gene expression profiles. fls485 coding a putative chaperone protein has been recently suggested as a gene involved in this process. The aim of the present study was to analyze fls485 expression in human small intestinal mucosa.

Failure of lamivudine to reverse hepatitis B virus-associated changes in ERK, Akt and cell cycle regulatory proteins.

Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major factor associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. Treatment of chronic hepatitis B with lamivudine results in virological suppression and histological improvement; however, the role of lamivudine in preventing the development of hepatocellular carcinoma is less well defined. We recently reported that replication of HBV in a cell-culture system was associated with the upregulation of pERK, pAkt, pc-Myc, nuclear cyclin B1, p21(cip1) and p53 together with G2 cell cycle arrest.

Modulation of MAPK pathways and cell cycle by replicating hepatitis B virus: factors contributing to hepatocarcinogenesis.

Background/aims: Chronic infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is strongly associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma but the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. Numerous studies have focused on the HBV X protein showing that it activates signal transduction pathways while few have investigated these changes in HBV-replicating hepatocytes.

Methods: We utilized the recombinant adenovirus system to deliver a replication competent HBV genome into Huh7 and primary marmoset hepatocytes (PMH) to examine the effects of active viral replication on the regulation of Ras-ERK signal transduction and related pathways.