الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Hepatic fibrosis is a reversible accumulation of extracellular matrix in response to chronic injury. Most chronic liver diseases of different etiologies lead to cirrhosis and its complications, which impair the quality of life and limit the life expectancy. The main pathological mechanism of progression to cirrhosis is fibrogenesis. Patients of chronic liver diseases are often asymptornatic with few clinical signs of liver disease. Recognition of liver fibrosis or cirrhosis is difficult without liver biopsy which is associated with complications and limitations. Because of the availability of antifibrotic treatment, the accurate measurement of the stage of disease and activity of fibrogenesis is important to assess the severity of fibrosis.. There is a great need for a noninvasive reliable serum markers for liver fibrosis to monitor both static and dynamic aspects of liver fibrosis. Alterations in circulating MIV1Ps and TIMPs concentrations and their correlation to inflammatory activity seem fairly well established, whereas correlations between MMPs, TIMPs, and histological changes are found less consistently. |