Liver and spleen transient elastography and Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Measurements. Performance and comparison of measurements in the same area concurrently assessed for liver fibrosis by biopsy.

Purpose: The estimation of the degree of liver fibrosis is important for prognosis, surveillance, and treatment of chronic liver disease. Although liver biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis, it is subject to sampling error, while ultrasound-based techniques, such as Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) and transient elastography, have gained popularity. However, no previous comparative study has performed these ultrasound techniques at the time of biopsy.

Quantifying hepatic steatosis - more than meets the eye.

Aims: The non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) activity score (NAS) is the histological tool used to assess disease severity based on steatosis, inflammation and hepatocyte ballooning. As steatosis contributes up to three of a potential eight points to NAS, it is important to quantify steatosis accurately. We sought to determine the optimum histological technique for identifying fat in tissue.

The epidemiology, pathogenesis and histopathology of fatty liver disease.

Fatty liver disease includes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD), each of which is increasing in prevalence. Each represents a histological spectrum that extends from isolated steatosis to steatohepatitis and cirrhosis. NAFLD is associated with obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance, and is considered to be the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome.

Physiological hepatic nuclear vacuolation--how long does it persist?

Aims: Nuclear vacuolation/glycogenation is a characteristic histological feature of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that can help distinguish it from alcohol-induced liver disease. There are, however, other associations of nuclear vacuolation of which the commonest is as a normal feature of childhood. The aim of this study was to identify how long this physiological nuclear vacuolation persists.

Evaluation of single-tube osmotic fragility as a screening test for thalassemia.

A single-tube osmotic fragility test has been proposed for thalassemia screening with a range of different concentrations of saline having been employed. We have compared the sensitivity and specificity of 0.32%, 0.

Inducible nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS2A) haplotypes and the outcome of hepatitis C virus infection.

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is an important molecule involved in the host defense against infectious agents. iNOS is encoded by the NOS2A gene and well-defined haplotypes exist with respect to this gene. We examined whether these haplotypes were associated with the outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 619 Caucasian patients from seven European liver centres.

Activity of hybrid type I interferons in cells lacking Tyk2: a common region of IFN-alpha 8 induces a response, but IFN-alpha2/8 hybrids can behave like IFN-beta.

Type I interferons (IFNs) are a family of pleiotropic cytokines with antiviral, antiproliferative, and immunomodulatory properties. The type I IFN family consists of 12 IFN-alpha subtypes, IFN-beta, and IFN-omega. Cells lacking the receptor-associated protein kinase Tyk2 (U1A) are responsive only to IFN-beta and partially to IFN-alpha8.

High yield expression, refolding, and characterization of recombinant interferon alpha2/alpha8 hybrids in Escherichia coli.

Interferons (IFNs) are a family of pleiotropic cytokines used for the treatment of various viral infections and cancers. The low-cost production of IFNs with high biological value and the discovery of IFNs with improved properties are important for the treatment of these diseases as well as for understanding the physiological functions of these compounds. We describe a protein expression system for the production of IFNs alpha2, alpha8, and their hybrids in insoluble form in Escherichia coli, coupled to an efficient two-step optimized refolding and histidine-tag purification protocol.