Adult ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; physiopathology ; Portal Pressure

STUDY DESIGN: In vitro studies using human intervertebral disc for the localization of the type IV collagen. OBJECTIVE: 1) To study the distribution pattern and immunoexpression of type 4 collagen in the intervertebral disc, 2) To study the function of type IV collagen in the intervertebral disc. SUMMARY OF BACK GROUND: The correlations of degeneration changes and collagens in the dics have not been determined. The reports for type IV collagen were few. So far, the histologic analysis for the expression of type IV collagen in the intervertebral disc has not been done. There was no report to study the function of the type IV collagen in the intervertebral disc. METHODS: Fifty-four disc blocks obtained during anterior interbody fusion of the lumbar spine were used to observe the expression pattern of the type IV collagen with immunochemical stain. For the observation of the myxomatous degeneration in the intervertebral disc, the alcian blue stain with periodic acid-schilff was done. For the control group, 22 neonate intervertebral disc blocks were obtained at autopsy. RESULTS: The immunoreactions for type IV collagen were associated blood vessels in the anulus fibrosus in the disc. There was no statistical significant difference of the type IV collagen expression between the control and disease groups. Myxomatous degenerations were observed as the irregular form in the degenerative intervertebral disc. CONCLUSION: The immunoreactions for the type IV collagen were observed in the intervertebral discs and associated with the formation of the blood vessels, especially in anulus fibrosus.
Alcian Blue ; Autopsy ; Blood Vessels ; Collagen ; Collagen Type IV* ; Dacarbazine ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Intervertebral Disc* ; Spine

OBJECTIVETo study the relationship between collgen (Col) IV, VEGF secreted by the tumor cells and vasculogenic mimicry (VM).

METHODS158 bi-phase differential malignant tumor specimens were alloted and made into tissue microarray. These tissue microarray sections were stained with CD31, periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and Col IV. Subsequently, distributive trait of Col IV and the difference of VEGF expression were analyzed.

RESULTSThe basement membrane of VM was PAS and Col IV positive. The expression of VEGF in bi-phase differential malignant tumor with VM was less than that in those without VM. The difference of VEGF expression in malignant melanoma and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma was significant (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCollgen IV and periodic acid-Schiff positive material take part in constructing the basement membrane of vasculogenic mimicry. The difference of the VEGF expression proves that vasculogenic mimicry can sustain the tumor blood supply.

Collagen Type IV ; analysis ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neoplasms ; blood supply ; chemistry ; pathology ; Periodic Acid-Schiff Reaction ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; analysis

OBJECTIVETo assess the clinical utility of liver fibrosis indexes determination in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

METHODSLiver fibrosis indexes of 79 patients with fatty liver, diagnosed by B ultrasonic echography, 37 patients with posthepatitic cirrhosis patients and 32 healthy subjects were determined.

RESULTSThe level of procollagen III(PC III), hyaluronic acid (HA), collagen IV(C IV), laminin (LN) in the fatty liver cases were significantly higher than those of healthy subjects (P<0.05 - 0.01), but lower than those in the liver cirrhosis cases (P<0.01). The difference of PC III, C IV, LN between the severe and early fatty liver cases was significant (P<0.05 - 0.01). Positive rate of these indexes was higher in severe cases.

CONCLUSIONThere is a trend of liver fibrosis in severe fatty liver patients. Combined determination of liver fibrosis indexes may help the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in the fatty liver patients.

Adult ; Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Fatty Liver ; blood ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVESTo study the relationship between serum levels of hyaluronic acid (HA), type III procollagen (PCIII), laminin (LN), type IV collagen (IV-C) and hepatic fibrosis and to determine their value in clinical practice.

METHODS2600 serum samples from chronic hepatitis patients were assayed for fibrosis indexes including HA, PCIII, LN and IV-C with RIA. Liver biopsy was performed in 280 of those patients and the biopsy material was examined histopathologically. The inflammation grade of the liver, stage of fibrosis and degree of chronic hepatitis were recorded and were compared with fibrotic indexes.

RESULTSAmong 2600 chronic hepatitis patients, every fibrotic index had a significant correlation with the inflammation grade, fibrosis staging and the degree of chronic hepatitis (P < 0.01). The coefficient correlation of the results of histopathological examinations to HA was 0.544, 0.548 and 0.468 respectively, that to PCIII, 0.495, 0.424 and 0.335, that to LN, 0.214, 0.204 and 0.184, and that to IV-C, 0.406, 0.404 and 0.412, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSSerum fibrosis indexes are fairly well correlated with the inflammation grade of the liver, fibrosis staging and the degree of chronic hepatitis. However, as diagnostic markers, they should be considered in combination with liver function tests, ultrasonography and clinical manifestations.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Female ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; blood ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Procollagen ; blood ; Prognosis

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between four serum fibrosis markers and liver function in patients with infantile hepatitis syndrome (IHS), and to explore the clinical significance of these markers in the diagnosis of IHS and the assessment of disease severity.

METHODSA retrospective study was performed on 60 patients with IHS who were divided into hepatic fibrosis and normal groups based on ultrasound diagnosis. Levels of four liver fibrosis markers, i.e., hyaluronic acid (HA), type III procollagen (PC-III), type IV collagen (IV.C), and laminin (LN), were compared between the two groups, and the correlation between these markers and liver function was analyzed.

RESULTSLevels of liver function markers (alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), total bilirubin (TBil), direct bilirubin (DBil), indirect bilirubin (IBil), and total bile acid (TBA)) in the hepatic fibrosis group were significantly higher than those in the normal group (P<0.05). Levels of HA and IV.C in the hepatic fibrosis group were significantly higher compared with those in the normal group (P<0.05). Furthermore, HA, IV.C, and PC-III levels were positively correlated with those of ALT, TBil, GGT, DBil, IBil, and TBA (r=0.25-0.49), and the strongest correlation existed between HA/IV.C and ALT/jaundice markers.

CONCLUSIONSAssay measuring serum fibrosis markers (HA, IV.C, and PC-III) in combination with liver function tests and ultrasound examination has an important clinical value in the early diagnosis of IHS and evaluation of disease severity.

Biomarkers ; blood ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Female ; Hepatitis ; blood ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Infant ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver ; physiopathology ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; diagnosis ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Syndrome

OBJECTIVEThe presence of liver fibrosis in patients with beta-thalassemia major has been demonstrated to be an important negative prognostic factor. Identification of liver fibrosis in early stage would be of great value. Hyaluronic acid (HA), type III pre-collagen (PC III), collagen IV (C IV) and laminin (LN) as serum markers were widely used in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral infections or alcoholic liver diseases. However, their values in thalassemic liver fibrosis have not been studied. This work was to determine the serum HA, PC III, C IV and LN levels in children with beta-thalassemia major and evaluate the diagnostic utility.

METHODSerum HA, PC III, C IV and LN in 49 hospitalized children with beta-thalassemia major (aged 1 - 15 years with the media age of 6.27 years) and 41 healthy children served as controls (aged 1 - 13 years with media age of 6.40 years) were detected by radioimmunoassay (RIA). Forty-five of 49 cases were performed percutaneous liver biopsies, and the histopathological fibrosis was compared with the four serum markers. The correlation and discriminate analysis were used.

RESULTSAll the serum levels of HA, PC III, C IV and LN in beta-thalassemia were significantly higher than those in controls (P < 0.01). In 36 of 45 cases, the histopathology showed liver fibrosis including stage I and stage II by biopsies with a positive rate of 80%. The serum levels of four markers increased successively with the aggravation of liver fibrosis from stage 0 to stage II, and significant correlation was observed between the level of HA or PC III and the stage of fibrosis (HA, r = 0.379, P = 0.017; PC III, r = 0.455, P = 0.04). While there was no difference between the level of C IV or LN and fibrosis (C IV, r = 0.312, P = 0.053; LN, r = 0.310, P = 0.055). Using discriminate analysis, the discriminate function of co-detection of the four markers for the diagnosis of fibrosis was 0.002 HA + 0.003 PC III + 0.002 C IV + 0.006 LN-1.859, which had a sensitivity of 93.88%, specificity of 68.29%, predictive value of positive test and negative test of 77.97% and 90.32%, respectively. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the serum level of HA or PC III and the liver iron concentration (HA, r = 0.318, P = 0.035; PC III, r = 0.305, P = 0.044).

CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that, in beta-thalassemia major with chronic liver disease, HA and PC III showed more practical value in diagnosing liver fibrosis than the levels of C IV and LN. The combination of the four serum markers could improve the accuracy and reliability of the diagnosis. A validation study is necessary before introducing into the prediction function during the clinical practice.

Adolescent ; Biomarkers ; blood ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Infant ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; complications ; diagnosis ; Male ; Prognosis ; beta-Thalassemia ; blood ; complications ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo find the optimal dosage of Salvia injection in treating chronic hepatitis B caused liver fibrosis.

METHODSSixty-four patients, whose diagnosis was confirmed as chronic hepatitis B caused liver fibrosis and differentiated by TCM typing as blood stasis blocking Collaterals type, were selected and randomly divided by lottery method into the large, middle and small dose of SI treated groups and the control group. All the patients were treated with modified Gexia Zhuyu Decoction, to the patients in the SI groups, 24 ml, 16 ml and 8 ml of SI were additionally administered by intravenous dripping respectively. The therapeutic course was 45 days. The clinical symptoms and signs; liver functional indexes as alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and albumin (ALB); and liver fibrosis indexes as procollagen type III (PC-III), collagen type IV (C-IV) and hyaluronic acid (HA), were measured before and after treatment.

RESULTSDifferent dosages of SI all could improve the clinical symptoms, and lower levels of ALT, AST, HA, PC-III and C-IV. Treatment of large dosage SI showed the best efficacy, superior to that of middle and small dosage SI, but no significant difference was found between the efficacy of the latter two.

CONCLUSIONAnti-liver fibrosis effect of large dosage SI is better than that of middle or small dosage SI.

Adult ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; complications ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; blood ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Salvia miltiorrhiza

OBJECTIVETo observe the anti-liver-fibrosis effect of Guzhang Tablet (GZT) and to explore its mechanism.

METHODSFifty female rats, weighing 200-220 g were randomly divided into the blank control group, the model group, the small dosage GZT group, the large dosage GZT group and the Biejiajian Pill (BJJP) group, 10 rats in each group. The changes of related serum enzymes, liver-fibrosis marker, oxygen free radical and liver tissue pathology were observed after 8 weeks of treatment.

RESULTS(1) Compared with the model group, the serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), glutamyltranspetidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (AKP) were improved in the GZT groups, better effect was got in the large dosage GZT group. (2) Compared with the blank control group, GZT showed no effect on serum total protein (TP) but with raising albumin (ALB) effect. (3) Compared with blank control group, the levels of hyaluronidase (HA), laminin (LN), collagen type IV (IV-C) and procollagen type III (PC III) in both GZT groups were lower, especially in the large dosage GZT group. (4) Small and large dosage of GZT showed effect in reducing malonyldialdehyde (MDA), Glutathione-peroxidose(GSH-Px) and nitric oxide (NO) content, but the effect on increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) similar to that of BJJP with no significant different. (5) GZT, both small and large dosage, had obvious anti-liver fibrosis action, which was superior to that of BJJP.

CONCLUSIONIn the genetic and developing processes of liver fibrosis in rats, GZT could protect the liver cells, inhibit the synthesis and reduce the content of collagens, the mechanism might be related with its action in antagonizing peroxidation injury, indicating that GZT could effectively prevent liver fibrosis formation.

Animals ; Collagen Type III ; blood ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Hyaluronoglucosaminidase ; blood ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; pathology ; prevention & control ; Male ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Tablets

During the development of invasive tumor, tumor cells penetrate the basement membrane and enter the underlying interstitial stroma to gain access to lymphatics and blood vessel for further dissemination. Invasion of the basement membrane is one of the most important steps. The basement membrane of bladder is composed of laminin and type IV collagen primarily and plasminogen activator and cathepsin B are increased in bladder carcinoma. Retinoic acid which is vitamin A metabolite suppresses carcinogenesis and promotes the differentiation of several types of tumor cells. Membrane invasion culture system (MICS) is an in vitro invasion assay using artificial basement membrane, Matrigel. Using this in vitro chemoinvasion assay, we evaluated the invasion of human invasive bladder cancer cell J82 and the ability of retinoic acid to inhibit the invasion of J82 quantitatively. The invaded tumor cells were 38.1+/-9.0 cells/field, 24.4+/-13.3 cells/field, 20.6+/-6.5 cells/field and 16.0+/-8.2 cells/field after adding retinoic acid 0uM, 0.1uM, 1.0uM and 10.0uM respectively and the decrease was statistically significant(p <0.05). Thereafter, the possible mechanisms of action responsible for the anti-invasive effect were further investigated, comparing retinoic acid-treated cells with untreated cells. The survival fractions were 100%, 82.4%, 65.3% and 46% with retinoic acid concentration 0uM, 0.1uM, 1.0uM and 10.0uM respectively on MTT test. Type IV collagenolytic activities were measured by type IV collagenolysis assay using [3H] proline labeled collagen film. Type IV collagenolysis activities were significantly decreased to 100%, 82.4 %, 65.3 % and 46.0% after adding retinoic acid, 0 M, 0.1 M, 1.0 M and 10.0 M respectively. But retinoic acid could not inhibit either the activity of plasminogen activator nor activity of cathepsin B enzyme significantly. These results suggest that retinoic acid inhibit the invasion of human invasive bladder cancer cell J82 and the inhibitory effect of retinoic acid may be caused by suppression of type IVcollagenolysis and direct cytotoxicity.
Basement Membrane ; Blood Vessels ; Carcinogenesis ; Cathepsin B ; Collagen ; Collagen Type IV ; Humans* ; Laminin ; Membranes* ; Plasminogen Activators ; Proline ; Tretinoin* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder* ; Vitamin A