Current Status of Autoimmune Hepatitis in Japan

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by histological interface hepatitis, hypergammaglobulinemia, and circulating autoantibodies. Multiple factors, including molecular mimicry, a genetic background including major histocompatibility complex class II, and defective function of regulatory T-cells, are involved in the pathogenesis. The diagnosis is made based on the scoring system of the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group, the sensitivity and specificity of which are90%, respectively. AIH is classified into 3 sub-types based on the profiles of circulating autoantibodies: anti-nuclear antibody and/or smooth muscle antibody-positive (type 1), anti-liver-kidney microsomal antibody-positive (type 2), and anti-soluble liver antigen/liver-pancreas antigen antibody- positive (type 3). Recently, however, the number of atypical cases lacking the usual features has increased-for example, patients with acute-onset or fulminant-type AIH, autoantibody-negative patients, male patients, and patients with bile duct injury-and thus the clinical features of AIH have been diversified. AIH is responsive to immunosuppressive treatment in most cases; however, relapse occurs in more than 80% of patients within 1 year after immunosuppressive treatment withdrawal. The 10-year survival rate and the 10-year hepatocellular carcinoma-free rate are90%, respectively, indicating that some patients reach liver failure or develop hepatocellular carcinoma. To improve the prognosis of these patients, persistent normalization of transaminase is required.</p

Generating Story Reviews Using Phrases Expressing Emotion

PACLIC / The University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College Cebu City, Philippines / November 20-22, 200

Extracting Troubles from Daily Reports based on Syntactic Pieces

PACLIC / The University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College Cebu City, Philippines / November 20-22, 200

Significance of Des-gamma-carboxy Prothrombin Production in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Serum des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) is commonly used to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This review focuses on the clinical features of DCP-positive HCC and the molecular function of DCP in HCC. DCP-positive HCC demonstrates more aggressive clinicopathological features than DCP-negative HCC. Analysis of the biological effects of DCP revealed that DCP acts as a growth factor in both an autocrine and paracrine manner. DCP stimulates HCC cell proliferation through the Met-Janus kinase 1-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 signaling pathway, whereas for vascular endothelial cells, it stimulates cell proliferation and migration through the kinase insert domain receptor-phospholipase C-gamma-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway.</p