ABSTRACT
Various pathological factors can result in the death of hepatocytes during liver injury. Persistent hepatocyte death initi-ates and aggravates chronic inflammation and fibrosis,ultimately leading to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, limiting hepatocyte death is an effective strategy for improving liver injury. Necroptosis is a newly characterized form of cell death,which is highly regulated by signaling pathways and has typical morphological features of necrosis. Increasing evidence indicates that necroptosis plays a key role in drug-induced or im-munological acute liver injuries,and in chronic liver injuries in-cluding alcoholic fatty liver,nonalcoholic fatty liver and liver fi-brosis. This article reviews the recent advances on the hepato-cyte necroptosis in liver injury,providing novel insights into the pathogenesis of liver disease and related therapeutic reagents.
ABSTRACT
The trichomonad species Tritrichomonas foetus and Pentatrichomonas hominis were recently detected in the feces of dogs with diarrhea. However, little information is available on the prevalence and pathogenicity of these parasites in the canine population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and molecular characterization of trichomonads infecting pet dogs in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, east China. In total, 315 pet dogs, with or without diarrhea, from 7 pet hospitals were included in this epidemiological survey. Microscopy and PCR detected P. hominis in 19.7% (62/315) and 31.4% (99/315) of fecal samples, respectively. T. foetus infection was detected in 0% (0/315) of samples with microscopy and in 0.6% (2/315) with PCR. The prevalence of P. hominis was significantly higher in young dogs (≤12 months) than in adult dogs (>12 months), and was significantly higher in diarrheic dogs (50.6%) than in non-diarrheic dogs (24.3%; P<0.05). Infection with T. foetus did not correlate with any risk factors evaluated in this study. A sequence analysis of the P. hominis PCR products showed minor allelic variations between our sequences and those of P. hominis strains from other hosts in different parts of the world. Type CC1 was the most common strain in dogs in east China. The internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1)-5.8S rRNA gene sequences from the 2 T. foetus isolates detected in this study displayed 100% identity and were homologous to the sequences of other strains isolated from domestic cats in other countries.