hepatocelular carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To construct a retroviral vector carrying HBX gene and investigate its expression in LO2 human hepatocytes. METHODS: HBX gene was amplified by PCR and subcloned into the retroviral vector pSEB-Flag to construct a retroviral plasmid (pSEB-Flag-HBX) expressing HBX. The HBX gene insert was confirmed by restriction enzyme digestion, PCR and DNA sequencing. The recombinant retroviruses carrying HBX gene were generated in 293T cells co-transfected with pSEB-Flag-HBX and the packaging plasmids pAmpho, and used to infect LO2 human hepatocyte...

Concerning the important differences in the ethiopathology of hepatocelular carcinomas (HCC) in humans and dogs, our work describes the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr), cytokeratine 19 (CK19), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transforming growth factor beta receptor (TGFbeta-r) in tumors arising in both species. Investigation included 25 cases of human and 8 cases of dog tumors. All human cases were noted in cirrhotic livers, while in dogs the tissue adjacent to tumor was not changed...

Cryptogenic cirrhosis represents the third cause of cirrhosis in Mexico and comprises the clinical spectrum of NAFLD. Insulin resistance is the main factor in NASH development, as well as genetic and environmental factors. Derangement in insulin signaling pathways, either pre-receptor or post-receptor, causes insulin resistance (IR). The post-receptor dysfunction represents the primary cause of IR and links with metabolic syndrome, mainly diabetes and obesity. Prevailing metabolic moment will establish the IR status...

Since July 2006, the liver graft allocation has been changed from the waiting time to the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), prioritizing the sickest patients, who have a higher risk of dying on the waiting list, and sometimes in such poor clinical condition that it compromises transplantation outcomes. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of a MELD score > or = 30 on 30-day survival after liver transplantation (OLT). We prospectively collected the data on 178 liver transplants on 163 patients performed from March 2003 to August 2007...

The tumour pulmonary micro-embolism is a rare condition characterized by the occlusion of pulmonary small arteries, arteriolas, and alveolar capillaries septales, accompanied of trombosis. Occasionally the development of pulmonary hypertension is the first manifestation of an occult neoplasia, in series of autopsies, an incidence from 3 to 26% has been reported in solid tumors, being clinical evident in 8%. Few cases have documented the development of this condition in patients with carcinoma hepatocelular, we report the case of a 16-year-old male who comes to the emergency with signs of cardiac insufficiency and cor pulmonare whose anatomopatological study confirmed a tumour massive microembolic compromise at pulmonary level and hepatocarcinoma...

As opposed to malignant secondary tumors, metastases of the colorectal carcinoma are benign tumors of the liver that are quite rare in the Czech Republic. From the 55 patients operated on since 2000 at our department for benign liver tumors, the most frequent are haemangiomas, focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) and hepatocelular adenoma. Only 7.3% of them form a different histological type of a tumor than this most frequently occurring trio of tumors. The authors describe three cases of rather rare liver tumors with benign behavior that have the potential of becoming malignant...

Cancer has been the leading cause of death in Taiwan over the past two decades and liver cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in Taiwan with a trend of increase in incidence. Therapeutic options and efficacy for liver cancer have been limited and the 5-year survival rate is less than 7% in the Unite States. The study was conducted to establish a histoculture system of human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) for biological and pharmacological studies and to determine the efficacy of anticancer drugs with the established HCC histocultures...

The Hepatitis C virus has emerged over the last two decades as the cause of the second greatest viral infection epidemic after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A significant characteristic of the infection with the Hepatitis C virus is the variable course of its natural history. About 80% of the people who acquire this agent develop a chronic infection, with varying degree of liver damage, including cirrhosis and even hepatocelular carcinoma. However, only a minority progresses towards more severe forms...

A bioassay of p-cresidine for possible carcinogenicity was conducted using Fischer 344 rats and B6C3F1 mice. p-Cresidine was administered in the feed, at either of two concentrations, to groups of 50 male and 50 female animals of each species. The dietary concentrations used in the chronic bioassay for low and high dose rats were 0.5 and 1.0 percent, respectively. The time-weighted average concentrations fed to low dose male, low dose female, high dose male and high dose female mice were 0.22, 0.22. 0.46, and 0...

Using a combination of hybridization of PAC to a cDNA library and RACE technique, we isolated a novel cDNA, designated as C17orf25 (Chromosome 17 open reading frame 25, previously named it HC71A), from the deletion region on chromosome 17p13.3. The cDNA encodes a protein of 313 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 34.8 kDa. C17orf25 is divided into 10 exons and 9 introns, spanning 23 kb of genomic DNA. Northern blot analysis showed that the mRNA expression of C17orf25 was decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma samples as compared to adjacent noncancerous liver tissues from the same patients...

Increase of survival of patients submitted to transplantation is much superior when compared to other treatments in patients suffering terminal chronic hepatic failure. This fact has been allowing earlier indication of hepatic transplantation in lower operative risk patients. Pre-operative cardiocirculatory evaluation is essential, because during surgery hemodynamic and cardiac output alterations shall occur. The actual survival above 75% suggests that it is easier nowadays to look for factors responsible for mortality than to those predictable by survival...

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Fibronectin is a multifunctional glycoprotein and plays important roles in cell-to-cell or cell-to-matrix interaction. The molecular and functional diversity of fibronectin arises from alternative splicing of pre-mRNA at three variable regions, termed ED-A, ED-B and IIICS. Cellular fibronectin with ED-A and ED-B regions has different biological activities from plasma fibronectin lacking these regions. This study was aimed at investigating the type-specific expression of fibronectin in human liver diseases...

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha) are potent mitogens for mature hepatocytes in primary culture (Nakamura, et al. 1984, Mead et al., 1989). However, these cytokines have completely different effects on tumor cell growth (Jhappan et al., 1990, Shiota et al, 1992). To clarify dual effects of these cytokines in liver, we developed double transgenic mice of HGF and TGF alpha using albumin promoter-HGF cDNA transgenic mice (AlbHGF) and metallothionein promoter-TGF alpha transgenic mice (MthTGF alpha)...