Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019158 (hepatitis)
 30,205 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Researchers from the US National Cancer Institute compared data on 25-49 year old US women who died of primary liver cancer between 1985 and 1986 with data on age matched controls who died of causes other than liver conditions or oral contraceptive (OC) related conditions to determine the association between primary liver cancer and parity. Women who had experienced at least 1 live birth wear 1.9 times more likely to have died of primary liver cancer than were nulliparous women. The association was not significant (p=.22), however. The highest risks were among children with at least 6 children (odds ratio [OR]=2.9) and with 2 children (2.1). Further the risks were greater when the parents or spouse completed the questionnaire and the association almost reached significance (p=.07). This may have been due to parents and spouse providing more complete information than a friend or neighbor. The risks of developing primary liver cancer were higher among women who had never used OCs than they were among those who ever did. For example, the OR for never users past parity 2 was 3.6 compared with 1.3 for ever OC users. There was a higher risk associated with parity among long term OC users (=or 5 years) than with short-term OC users, however. The researchers concluded that since parity was positively associated with increased risk of primary liver cancer in the US (a low risk country), endogenous hormones may contribute to liver cancer development. The following facts add to this plausibility. Estrogen profiles of parous women are different from those of nulliparous women. Estrogen levels rise considerably during pregnancy. Estrogens alter liver metabolism. Pregnancy makes the body more defenseless against hepatitis and its sequelae. In low risk countries, the risk of primary liver cancer rises among women using exogenous hormones.
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PMID:Parity and primary liver cancer among young women. 161 86

Liver disease in pregnancy is uncommon, acute viral hepatitis being the most frequent. The latter has a normal prognosis in pregnancy, with the possible exception of NANB hepatitis in India and North Africa. Immunization of neonates born of mothers suffering from acute or chronic HBV is essential and effective. Acute fatty liver of pregnancy has a better prognosis than previously thought, perhaps due to diagnosis of milder cases or improved intensive care. Its etiology is still unknown, but metabolic stress may be important. The confusion and overlap of AFLP, the HELLP syndrome, and liver disease of eclampsia suggest common etiological factors. Urgent delivery of the fetus is recommended in AFLP. The related condition of acute liver rupture may be diagnosed by ultrasound. Successful conservative management has been reported. Estrogens are involved in the pathophysiology of ICP, but this does not explain the profound racial differences in incidence. The nature of the sensitivity to estrogens is not understood, although reduced membrane fluidity, which may be counteracted by S-adenosyl-L-methionine, is one possible explanation. The increased fetal loss associated with ICP suggests that treatment should be more energetic than hitherto. In the worst affected individuals, fetal malnutrition secondary to maternal steatorrhea may be an important factor. In general, patients with chronic liver disease have increased maternal and particularly fetal mortality.
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PMID:Diagnosis and management of liver disease in pregnancy. 240 96

Von Willebrand's disease causes spontaneous bleeding from mucocutaneous surfaces and excessive blood loss after surgery. Some women with the disease have less spontaneous hemorrhage and show improved coagulation while taking oral contraceptives (OCs) or while pregnant; estrogens are believed responsible for these improvements. 3 women are described who had previously received infusions of either fresh frozen plasma or cryoprecipitate to stop postoperative hemorrhage, and exhibited prolonged bleeding times, abnormal platelet retention results, and decreased plasma levels of factor VIII-related coagulant, factor VIII-related antigen, and factor VIII-related von Willebrand factor. However while taking estrogens they experienced cessation of spontaneous bleeding episodes and exhibited normal coagulation test results; all observed less epistaxis and spontaneous bruising during pregnancy. Continuing estrogen therapy, each woman underwent major surgery with no abnormal bleeding an no blood component therapy. 2 other women with type 1 von Willebrand's disease also exhibited improved hemostasis while taking OCs. It is unclear how estrogens stimulate synthesis of the various factor VIII components and for certain women with von Willebrand's disease certain estrogens may improve hemostasis more effectively than others. Estrogens might obviate the need for cryoprecipitate or fresh frozen plasma to assure hemostasis, thereby eliminating the threat of transfusion-induced hepatitis and reducing surgical costs.
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PMID:Estrogens and surgery in women with von Willebrand's disease. 698 97

Estrogens play important roles in the cell proliferation and invasion of estrogen-dependent human neoplasms. Aromatase overexpression has been also reported in hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared with normal liver but its details in these hepatic disorders have remained unclear. Therefore, in this study, we first immunolocalized aromatase using immunohistochemistry in patients with liver cirrhosis, steatosis, hepatitis, HCC, and metastasis liver carcinoma (MLC) in order to study the detailed status of intrahepatic aromatase. Aromatase immunoreactivity was predominantly detected in nonneoplastic hepatocytes around tumor cells. We then evaluated the effects of an interaction between hepatocytes and carcinoma cells upon aromatase mRNA expression, using HepG2 as a substitute model of hepatocytes by coculture systems. Aromatase mRNA levels in HepG2 were significantly increased by coculture with all carcinoma cell lines examined. We also evaluated alternative splicing of aromatase exon 1 but the same splicing variant was used in HepG2 cells regardless of carcinoma cell lines employed in the coculture system. These findings obtained in HepG2 indicated that carcinoma cells, whether metastatic or primary, induced aromatase expression in adjacent normal hepatocytes possibly through the soluble aromatase inducible factors in human hepatic microenvironments.
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PMID:Aromatase in human liver and its diseases. 2393 Feb 7