http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Alcohol consumption is known to cause liver damage. Yet the specifics of alcohol-induced liver injury can differ depending on the pattern of drinking. New rodent findings show that chronic drinking causes more injury - as measured by gene-expression changes - to the liver than acute or binge drinking. http://www.physorg.com/news152902421.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:53:57 EST news152902421 Blocking off the splenic artery, either through surgical ligation or radiological coiling, helped six out of seven patients suffering from small-for-size syndrome after a partial liver transplant. This finding is in the February issue of Liver Transplantation. http://www.physorg.com/news152902116.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:49:00 EST news152902116 A new review of four randomized controlled trials that directly compared two different treatments for small inoperable liver tumors has found that radiofrequency ablation (RFA) significantly improves patient survival compared to the standard therapy of percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI). These findings are in the February issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). http://www.physorg.com/news152899105.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:58:46 EST news152899105 Exposure to second-hand smoke and alcohol significantly raises the risk of liver disease, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). http://www.physorg.com/news152892670.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:11:38 EST news152892670 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have uncovered crucial clues about a paradoxical disease in which patients with no body fat develop many of the health complications usually found in obese people. http://www.physorg.com/news152892574.html Biology Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:10:00 EST news152892574 During its career, the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus has banked its success on a rather unusual strategy: its limitations. Its inability to infect animals other than humans and chimpanzees has severely hampered scientists in developing a useful small animal model for the disease. But now, in a breakthrough to be published in the January 29 advance online issue of Nature, Rockefeller University scientists have identified a protein that allows the virus to enter mouse cells, a finding that represents the clearest path yet for developing a much-needed vaccine as well as tailored treatments for the 170 million people across the globe living with the tenacious, insidious and rapidly changing virus. http://www.physorg.com/news152386635.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:37:48 EST news152386635 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified in mice a compound that liberates cholesterol that has inappropriately accumulated to excessive levels inside cells. http://www.physorg.com/news152213314.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:29:08 EST news152213314 Simple aspirin may prevent liver damage in millions of people suffering from side effects of common drugs, alcohol abuse, and obesity-related liver disease, a new Yale University study suggests. http://www.physorg.com/news152213055.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:24:50 EST news152213055 Patients who are infected with the latent form of tuberculosis (TB) show no symptoms and are not contagious, yet they pose the biggest challenge when it comes to controlling the disease. The latest study by Dr. Dick Menzies of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) describes a new potential treatment for this particular form of TB. The paper based on this study was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news151854703.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:56:47 EST news151854703 People on low-carbohydrate diets are more dependent on the oxidation of fat in the liver for energy than those on a low-calorie diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a small clinical study. http://www.physorg.com/news151652573.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:43:46 EST news151652573 The most effective treatment for hepatitis C fails in two-thirds of Hispanic patients but works for half of white patients, researchers reported Wednesday in a study that confirms ethnic disparities in the liver disease. http://www.physorg.com/news151249654.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:47:34 EST news151249654 A new study shows that infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) increases a person's risk for a highly fatal cancer of the biliary tree, the bile carrying pathway between the liver and pancreas. This finding is in the January issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). http://www.physorg.com/news151088825.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:07:05 EST news151088825 A new randomized, prospective trial has shown that orlistat, a commonly prescribed inhibitor of fat absorption, does not help patients with fatty liver disease (FLD) lose weight, nor does it improve their liver enzymes or insulin resistance. These findings are in the January issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). http://www.physorg.com/news151088581.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:03:01 EST news151088581 A new study suggests that patients with hepatitis C (HCV) who need a liver transplant should not receive an organ with high levels of fatty deposits (a.k.a. hepatic steatosis). HCV recurrence was more frequent and earlier among those transplanted with such livers. These findings are in the January issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons. http://www.physorg.com/news151074246.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:04:06 EST news151074246 Just after 5 p.m. doors rattle shut and feet begin to shuffle past the narrow lab where Karim Si-Tayeb sits hunched over a microscope, all but invisible to the scientists leaving the Medical College of Wisconsin. Si-Tayeb has already worked eight hours and will work five more, eyes locked on the living cells in his care. Under the microscope, their tiny colonies resemble constellations of tightly packed stars. They carry his ambition. http://www.physorg.com/news150295895.html Biology Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:51:35 EST news150295895 Liver biopsy is still considered the gold standard for grading, staging and "stad-ging" the chronic liver disease. In addition, it remains a primary source for acquiring new knowledge on the liver pathology. Demand for precise evaluations of the fibrosis and inflammatory tissue detectable in liver biopsy samples has been fuelled by the need to understand the closest-to-real effects of new antiviral molecules on the lesions characterising the histological patterns of chronic viral, toxic, metabolic and autoimmune diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news149924141.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:35:41 EST news149924141 Treating patients who have chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease with long-term pegylated interferon significantly decreased their liver enzymes, viral levels and liver inflammation, but the treatment did not slow or prevent the progression of serious liver disease, a study finds. http://www.physorg.com/news148053947.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:05:47 EST news148053947 A University of Iowa researcher and colleagues at the University of Michigan have discovered a direct link between disruption of a critical cellular housekeeping process and fatty liver disease, a condition that causes fat to accumulate in the liver. http://www.physorg.com/news147966719.html Biology Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:51:59 EST news147966719 Scientists have identified a genetic signature that is remarkably effective at predicting the prognosis of an aggressive liver cancer in children. The research, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cancer Cell, may lead to better treatments for pediatric liver cancers. http://www.physorg.com/news147965816.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:36:56 EST news147965816 Use of the drug interferon as a long-term maintenance strategy to slow the progression of liver disease associated with the hepatitis C virus is ineffective, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and their colleagues from nine other institutions have found in a multicenter study. http://www.physorg.com/news147619689.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:28:09 EST news147619689 For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But new findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest body-shape comparisons don't completely explain risk. http://www.physorg.com/news147616992.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:43:12 EST news147616992 An NIH funded multi-center clinical trial found no benefit from "maintenance therapy," low-dose peginterferon used for hepatitis C patients who have not responded to an initial round of treatment. In addition, the study showed a surprising health decline in patients with liver disease over the course of four years. http://www.physorg.com/news147551365.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:29:25 EST news147551365 A new study from Mayo Clinic finds the use of the drug therapy etanercept ineffective in treating alcoholic hepatitis, an acute inflammation of the liver caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. The results of the study are published in the December issue of Gastroenterology. http://www.physorg.com/news147358269.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:51:09 EST news147358269 Antibiotics are the single largest class of agents that cause idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI), reports a new study in Gastroenterology, an official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. DILI is the most common cause of death from acute liver failure and accounts for approximately 13 percent of cases of acute liver failure in the U.S. It is caused by a wide variety of prescription and nonprescription medications, nutritional supplements and herbals. http://www.physorg.com/news147352009.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:06:49 EST news147352009 When mice are exposed to arsenic at federally-approved levels for drinking water, pores in liver blood vessels close, potentially leading to cardiovascular disease, say University of Pittsburgh researchers in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, available online Nov. 13. The study, while preliminary, also reveals how an enzyme linked to hypertension and atherosclerosis alters cells, and may call into question current Environmental Protection Agency standards that are based solely on risks for cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news145818421.html Medicine & Health Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:07:01 EST news145818421 A novel protein marker has been found that identifies rare adult liver stem cells, whose ability to regenerate injured liver tissue has the potential for cell-replacement therapy. For the first time, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine led by Linda Greenbaum, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, have demonstrated that cells expressing the marker can differentiate into both liver cells and cells that line the bile duct. http://www.physorg.com/news145708384.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:33:04 EST news145708384 A new Canadian study comparing cancer rates of liver transplant patients to those of the general population has found that transplant recipients face increased risks of developing cancer, especially non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and colorectal cancer. Risks were more pronounced during the first year of follow-up and among younger transplant recipients. These findings are published in the November issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal by John Wiley & Sons. http://www.physorg.com/news144946240.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:50:40 EST news144946240 Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a disorder characterized by hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis with a risk of developing cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The progression from simple steatosis to cirrhosis has been attributed to inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-), oxidative stress and endotoxin, in combination with fatty degeneration due to insulin resistance. At present, histopathological examination of liver biopsy tissue is the only way to definitively diagnose NASH. The diagnosis of NASH is important in clinical hepatology, as this common disease is known to progress to hepatic cirrhosis and finally HCC. http://www.physorg.com/news144922163.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:09:23 EST news144922163 A new study shows that an imaging technology developed by Mayo Clinic researchers can identify liver fibrosis with high accuracy and help eliminate the need for liver biopsies. Liver fibrosis is a common condition that can lead to incurable cirrhosis if not treated in time. http://www.physorg.com/news144769871.html Medicine & Health Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:51:11 EST news144769871 The nonessential amino acid glycine has been shown to be anti-inflammatory in several animal injury models. Recent studies demonstrated that dietary glycine protected both the lung and liver against lethal doses of endotoxin in rat or other animals and improved graft survival after liver transplantation. The influence of dietary glycine on oxidant-induced or cholestatic liver injury was not known. http://www.physorg.com/news144681111.html Medicine & Health Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:11:51 EST news144681111