Acute hepatitis models are widely used for the evaluation of drugs for liver disease or for basic research on hepatitis. However, it is difficult to produce similar liver conditions to human chronic hepatitis with an acute hepatitis model. The interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) transgenic mouse, which carries the mouse IFN-gamma gene, strongly expresses the IFN-gamma gene in the liver and develops chronic hepatitis from the age of 6-10 weeks. We found that the hepatitis in this mouse reflects human chronic hepatitis at least in the following points, i) infiltration by lymphoid cells into the portal areas and necroinflammation in the lobules, and ii) expression of Fas antigen and Fas ligand mRNAs in the liver. Furthermore, the induction of CPP32-like protease activity in the transgenic mouse liver suggests the involvement of this protease activity in the development of chronic hepatitis.

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