Publications by authors named "Xianwa Niu"

Unlabelled: Iron is implicated in the pathogenesis of liver injury and insulin resistance (IR) and thus phlebotomy has been proposed as a treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We performed a prospective 6-month randomized, controlled trial examining the impact of phlebotomy on the background of lifestyle advice in patients with NAFLD. Primary endpoints were hepatic steatosis (HS; quantified by magnetic resonance imaging) and liver injury (determined by alanine aminotransaminase [ALT] and cytokeratin-18 [CK-18]).

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This study investigated iron-induced injury after warm ischemia in a non-heart-beating (NHB) rat liver model and the effects of deferoxamine (DFO). Livers from heart-beating (HB) rats or rats that were NHB for 60 minutes were stored in University of Wisconsin solution for 5 hours at 4°C [cold storage (CS)] and then were subjected to 2 hours of machine reperfusion (MRP) at 37°C. Three NHB groups were compared: (1) no DFO, (2) DFO 30 minutes before cardiac arrest and during CS and MRP, and (3) DFO during CS and MRP.

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Aim: To evaluate whether desferrioxamine decreases ischemia and perfusion injury aggravated by cold storage (CS) in a rat liver perfusion model.

Methods: Isolated rat livers were kept in CS in University of Wisconsin Solution for 20 h at 4 °C, then exposed to 25 min of warm ischemia (WI) at 37 °C followed by 2 h of warm perfusion (WP) at 37 °C with oxygenated (95% oxygen and 5% carbon dioxide) Krebs-Henseleit buffer. Desferrioxamine (DFO), an iron chelator, was added at different stages of storage, ischemia and perfusion: in CS only, in WI only, in WP only, in WI and perfusion, or in all stages.

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Oxidative stress during cold preservation has been identified as a significant cause of cell injury but the process by which injury occurs is poorly understood. We examined loss of lysosomal integrity as a possible cause of cell injury during extended cold storage of isolated rat hepatocytes. After 21 h of hypothermia, there was a marked decline in lysosomal integrity, which was correlated with an increase in lipid peroxidation.

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Unlabelled: Abstract Background and Aim: The presence of four or more amino acid substitutions within the interferon sensitivity determining region (ISDR) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1b NS5A gene determines sensitivity to interferon (IFN) monotherapy in Japanese patients. Resistance of HCV genotype 1 to IFN-alpha has been attributed to the functional inhibition of a RNA dependent protein kinase (PKR) by the HCV NS5A PKR binding domain (PKRBD), which includes the ISDR. The ability of the ISDR and PKRBD sequence to predict a response to IFN-alpha and ribavirin combination therapy was investigated in an Australian population.

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Oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein is thought to promote arterial lipid accumulation and atherogenesis. Previous studies reported on the presence of certain lipid or protein oxidation products in lesions, although a systematic investigation measuring several oxidation parameters and the accumulation of nonoxidized lipids and antioxidants at various stages of atherosclerosis has not been performed in the same tissue. Using the intimal lipoprotein-containing fraction of human aortic lesions, we demonstrate here that cholesterol accumulated with lesion development and that this increase was already significant at the fatty streak stage.

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