Pathobiology of liver fibrosis: a translational success story

Reversibility of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis following antiviral therapy for hepatitis B or C has advanced the prospect of developing antifibrotic therapies for patients with chronic liver diseases, especially non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Mechanisms of fibrosis have focused on hepatic stellate cells, which become fibrogenic myofibroblasts during injury through 'activation', and are at the nexus of efforts to define novel drug targets. Recent studies have clarified pathways of stellate cell gene regulation and epigenetics, emerging pathways of fibrosis regression through the recruitment and amplification of fibrolytic macrophages, nuanced responses of discrete inflammatory cell subsets and the…