OBJECTIVE To evaluate the pattern of pro-inflammatory cytokines, anti-inflammatory cytokines and the acute phase response (APR) as markers of the response to treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS Twenty-eight patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were evaluated at three time points: pretreatment (T0), treatment month 3 (T3) and treatment month 6 (T6). Levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gam...

BACKGROUND Hepatic stellate cell (HSC) plays a key role in pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. During liver injury, hypoxia in local micro-environment is inevitable. Hif-1α is the key transcriptional regulation factor that induces cell's adaptive responses to hypoxia. Recently, it was reported that MAPK is involved in regulation of Hif-1α activity. AIMS To explore whether Hif-1α regulates HSC act...

We consider vacuum solutions in M theory of the form of a five-dimensional Kaluza-Klein black hole cross T6. In a certain limit, these include the five-dimensional neutral rotating black hole (cross T6). From a type-IIA standpoint, these solutions carry D0 and D6 charges. We show that there is a simple D-brane description which precisely reproduces the Hawking-Bekenstein entropy in the extremal...

Z. F. Wang, Qunxiang Li, Q. W. Shi, Xiaoping Wang, J. G. Hou, Huaixiu Zheng, and Jie Chen Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People’s Republic of China Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, AB T6 G 2V4, Canada National Institute of Nanotechnology, Department of Ele...

six-cusped sextic, whose cusps lie on a conic, and many properties of this projected curve similar to those of the plane quartic can be at once obtained from the above general theorems. It remains to be added that the nature of the harmouic envelope T6, and the configuration of its contact-quadrics U^ in relation to the 86 double-sixes of the cubic surface by which T6 is defined, require furthe...

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) migration, an important bioprocess, contributes to the development of liver fibrosis. Our previous studies have found the potent activity of dioscin against liver fibrosis by inhibiting HSCs proliferation, triggering the senescence and inducing apoptosis of activated HSCs, but the molecular mechanisms associated with cell migration were not clarified. In this work,...

The activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is a significant phenomenon during the pathogenesis of liver disorders, including liver cirrhosis and fibrosis. Here, we identified that the extract from a gorgonian coral Pinnigorgia sp. (Pin) induced apoptosis of HSC-T6 cells. Pin inhibited the viability of HSC-T6 cells and increased their subG1 population, DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activatio...

Bradykinin-related peptides (BRPs) are one of the most extensively studied frog secretions-derived peptide families identified from many amphibian species. The diverse primary structures of BRPs have been proven essential for providing valuable information in understanding basic mechanisms associated with drug modification. Here, we isolated, identified and characterized a dodeca-BRP (RAP-L1, T...

Liver fibrosis is the common histological feature of a number of chronic liver diseases, and leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It has been demonstrated that N‑methyl‑4‑isoleucine cyclosporine (NIM811) attenuates CCl4‑induced liver fibrosis and inflammation in rats. The present study investigated whether NIM811 downregulated transforming growth factor (TGF)‑β signaling in ra...

Liver fibrosis is a major cause of liver failure, but treatment remains ineffective. In the present study, we investigated the mechanisms and anti-hepatofibrotic activities of asiatic acid (AA) in a rat model of liver fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) and in vitro in TGF-beta1-stimulated rat hepatic stellate cell line (HSC-T6). Treatment with AA significantly attenuated CCl(4)-i...