[Recent Progress of Therapeutic Strategy and Laboratory Examination Against Chronic Liver Diseases]

Chronic liver diseases consist of several etiologies, including hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). All these diseases can progress to liver cirrhosis and finally hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently therapies against HCV have markedly improved. Several direct anti-viral agents (DAAs) have been developed that show significant viral eradication efficiency. How- ever, viral eradication does not mean the complete cure of hepatitis C. Several reports have shown that, even after HCV eradication, HCC can occur in some patients, especially in those with advanced liver fibrosis. As well as HCV, patients with HBV have also shown that advanced liver fibrosis is associated with a high rate of HCC development. Accordingly, anti-fibrosis therapy would be one promising approach to improve the prognosis .of chronic liver disease patients. However, to date, no anti-fibrotic agent has been approved in clinical practice. We focused on angiogenesis. Angiogenesis has now been recognized to play an important role in many physiological and pathological events. We found that several clinically available agents exerted a marked anti-fibrotic effect both in basic and clinical studies at least partly mediated by anti-angiogenic activ- ity. Until newly developed agents become available, these clinical agents may offer alternative strategies against chronic liver diseases. [Review].