Regulation of hepatic connexins in cholestasis: possible involvement of Kupffer cells and inflammatory mediators.

Hepatocyte gap junction proteins, connexins (Cxs) 26 and 32, are downregulated during obstructive cholestasis (OC) and lipopolysaccharide hepatocellular cholestasis (LPS-HC). We investigated rat hepatic Cxs during ethynylestradiol hepatocellular cholestasis (EE-HC) and choledochocaval fistula (CCF) and compared them with OC and LPS-HC. Levels (immunoblotting) and cellular distribution (immunofluorescence) of Cx26, -32, and -43, as well as macrophage infiltration, were studied in livers of rats under each condition. Cx26 and -32 were reduced in LPS-HC, OC, and CCF. However, in EE-HC, Cx26 did not change and Cx32 was increased. Prominent inflammation occurred in LPS-HC, OC, and CCF, which was associated with increased levels of Cx43 in LPS-HC and OC but not CCF. No inflammation nor changes in Cx43 levels occurred during EE-HC. In cultured hepatocytes, dye coupling was reduced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukins-1beta and -6, whereas reduction induced by LPS required coculture with Kupffer cells. Thus hepatocyte gap junctions are downregulated in forms of cholestasis associated with inflammation, and reduced intercellular communication might be induced in part by proinflammatory mediators.

[Methods of treatment for suppurative biliary fistulas of amebic etiology]. / Vybor metoda lecheniia naruzhnykh zhelchno-gnoinykh svishchei amebnoi étiologii.

Experience in the treatment of 43 patients with pyobiliary fistulas which formed after abscessotomy in amebic abscess of the liver is generalized. The fistulas occurred after open drainage in 29 patients, spontaneous opening of the abscess on the external surface of the body in 8, and after operation for transdiaphragmatic opening of a hepatic abscess in 6 patients. Two groups of patients were distinguished according to the method of completion of the operation. Among the 24 patients of the first clinical group 9 were subjected to drainage of the residual cavity with excision of the fistula, biliary fistulas opening into the cavity were closed in 5 patients, and routine drainage of the cavity was performed in other 5 patients. In 5 cases the operation was completed by plastics of the residual cavity with a pedicle diaphragmatic flap. In the second clinical group, filling of the cavity with the omentum was carried out in 13 patients and a variant of operation suggested by the author was used in 6 patients. The organism's immune reactivity was found to be reduced in prolonged existence of the fistula. The author recommends immunostimulants to be included in the therapeutic complex.

[The combined prevention of postoperative suppurative-septic complications in patients with a fistula of the extrahepatic bile ducts]. / Kompleksnaia profilaktika posleoperatsionnykh gnoino-septicheskikh oslozhnenii u bol'nykh so svishchom vnepechenochnykh zhelchnykh protokov.

The authors have suggested a complex scheme for immunoprophylaxis of purulent-septic complications in patients with a fistula of the bile ducts, including study of the immune status, choice of the adequate immune correctors and antibiotics which act effectively on the pathogenic microflora, at individually adjusted dosages, performance of pre- and postoperative immunocorrection and immunotropic antibiotic therapy.