Effect of Mast Cell Chymase on Activation, Proliferation and Transdifferentiation of Hepatic Stellate Cells.

Background/aims: This work aims to observe the effects of mast cell (MC) chymase on activation, proliferation and transdifferentiation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and to discuss the role of chymase in development of liver fibrosis.

Methodology: Rat HSCs were isolated by in situ perfusion using collagenase IV and proteinase E and density gradient centrifugation (Percoll method), followed by culture. After intervention by chymase with series of concentration (1, 10 and 100 ng/mL), MTT assay was performed to determine HSC proliferation.

Epidemiology of SEN virus infection among patients with hepatitis B and C in China.

China is highly endemic for viral hepatitis. In the present study, we investigated the clinical significance and molecular analysis of SEN virus (SEN-V) infection in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C in YanBian city, China. Serum samples were obtained from 71 patients with hepatitis B and C who visited YanBian hospital in the north-east of China.

TT virus infection does not affect the clinical profiles of patients with hepatitis B and C in Yanbian City, China.

China is an area of high endemicity for viral hepatitis, and the molecular epidemiological investigation of TT virus (TTV) infection is of interest. In the present study, we investigated the epidemiology, clinical significance and molecular characteristics of TTV infection in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C in Yanbian City, China. Serum samples obtained from 74 patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C who visited Yanbian Hospital, located in northeast China, were analyzed in this study.

Clinico-epidemiological study of GBV-C/HGV infection in Tokyo metropolitan, and Nanjing and Yanbian cities in the People's Republic of China.

In the present study, we compared the molecular epidemiology of GBV-C/HGV co-infection and the clinical profiles in patients diagnosed with either type B or type C hepatitis virus infection from Nanjing in Southeast China and Yanbian in Northeast China, with those at the Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo. The patients included 97 men in Nanjing, 66 men and women in Yanbian, and 249 men and women at the Nihon University Hospital. GBV-C/HGV RNA was detected using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction as described by Abe et al.