Autoimmune and non-autoimmune thyroid dysfunction in HCV infected and HCV-HIV co-infected patients before and after interferon alpha therapy: A prospective study.

Introduction: Autoimmune thyroid diseases are reported in no treated hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The standard interferon alpha (IFNα) treatment is associated with an increase of thyroid damage and dysfunction. The present cohort prospective study compared thyroid function and autoimmunity in HCV patients' monoinfected and coinfected HCV-HIV at baseline, during and after IFNα therapy.

Clinical epidemiology of acute hepatitis C in South America.

There is scarce data pertaining to acute hepatitis C (aHC) infection in South America. We aimed to describe clinical characteristics and evolution of aHC in a South American cohort. A retrospective survey was conducted at 13 hepatology units.

Inkjet printed periodical micropatterns made of inert alumina ceramics induce contact guidance and stimulate osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells.

Bioinert high performance ceramics exhibit detrimental features for implant components with direct bone contact because of their low osseointegrating capability. We hypothesized that periodical microstructures made of inert alumina ceramics can influence the osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC). In this study, we manufactured pillared arrays made of alumina ceramics with periodicities as low as 100μm and pillar heights of 40μm employing direct inkjet printing (DIP) technique.

Efficacy and safety of long term entecavir in chronic hepatitis B treatment naïve patients in clinical practice.

Background And Aims: Entecavir (ETV) is effective and safe in patients with chronic hepatitis B in the short term, but its long term efficacy and safety has not been established.

Material And Methods: We evaluated HBV DNA clearance, HBeAg/antiHBe and HBsAg/antiHBs seroconversion rates in HBeAg-positive and negative NUC naïve HBV patients treated with ETV for more than 6 months, and predictors of response.

Results: A hundred and sixty nine consecutive patients were treated with ETV for a median of 181 weeks.

[Idiophatic inflammatory myophaties: its asociation with liver disorders].

Unlabelled: The aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT) and alanine aminotransferase (SGPT) are sensitive indicators of liver damage. While the TSGOT is also found in other organs, the SGPT is considered an enzyme specific liver. However, some authors state that the TGP can rise also in cases of muscle injury.

The most severe forms of type I autoimmune hepatitis are associated with genetically determined levels of TGF-beta1.

We previously reported that paediatric (PAH) and adult (AAH) forms of type I autoimmune hepatitis (AH) have different HLA-associations and clinical outcome. In the present study we investigated the role of TGF-beta1 genetic polymorphisms in the different outcome of PAH and AAH. We found a significant increase of "high producer" 25GG genotype in PAH and 10CC in AAH.

Gender susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection associated with interleukin 10 promoter polymorphism.

Elevated levels of interleukin 10 (IL-10) were previously described for chronically hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. We determined by a sequence-specific oligonucleotide probing technique the IL-10 promoter genotypes in 286 Argentinean HCV patients grouped according to disease outcome. The GG genotype (position -1082) is known to be associated with high IL-10 production, GA is considered an intermediate producer, and AA is associated with low IL-10 production.