IS THE ROLE OF APOPTOSIS DEFINITELY UNDERESTIMATED IN EVALUATING THE ENTITY OF LIVER INJURY?
As previously stated, the hepatic damage evaluation is abundantly unbalanced toward the inflammation/necrosis process. Apoptosis may occur in the absence of significant transaminases increase as happens in hepato-cellular necrosis. Apoptosis describes the process by which damaged or senescent cells are eliminated from the organism. The expression the falling of old leaves from trees in the autumn” clearly explains the apoptosis meaning. Apoptosis occurs by two mechanisms: death receptor or extrinsic mechanism and mitochondrial or intrinsic mechanism. Hepatocytes express different death receptors, i.e., Fas, tumor necrosis factor-receptor 1 (TNF-R1), TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand receptor 1 (TRAIL-R1), and receptor 2 (TRAIL-R2); stellate cells express Fas and TRAIL when are activated into myofibroblast-like phenotype and undergo apoptosis during resolution of liver injury in vivo. Cholangiocytes seem to be a type of cells in which the mitochondrial mechanism to apoptotic is esse
