Cirrhosis regression in chronic hepatitis C: an old tale with a new ending.

摘要

Regression of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis has been a main topic of research and discussion in the community of liver experts for decades. Scar formation in the liver has long been considered a unidirectional pathway and regression or reversibility of fibrosis has been perceived to be not much more than a myth. However, recent data have convincingly demonstrated the occurrence of fibrosis regression in a wide spectrum of chronic liver diseases, including viral, metabolic, autoimmune, and cholestatic diseases. Still, whether this holds true also for the extreme degree of fibrosis, namely, cirrhosis, is somewhat less clear, especially in patients with chronic hepatitis C, where the long-term histologic benefit of interferon (IFN)-based therapies is still debated.