Substantial evidence supports dysregulated B cell immune responses in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), including the presence of serum anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMAs). However, recent reports from murine models of PBC suggest that B cells may also provide regulatory function and indeed the absence of B cells in such models leads to exacerbation of disease. The vast majority of patients with PBC have readily detectable antimitochondrial antibodies, but a minority (<5%), are AMA negative (AMA−) even with recombinant diagnostic technology. This issue prompted us to examine the nature of B cell infiltrates surrounding the portal areas in AMA positive (AMA+) and AMA− patients since they display indistinguishable clinical features. Of importance was the finding that the degree of bile duct damage around the portal areas was significantly milder in AMA+ PBC than those seen in AMA− PBC patients. The portal areas from AMA− patients had a significant increase of CD5+ cells infiltrating the ductal regions and the levels of B cell infiltrates were worse in the early phase of bile duct damage. The frequency of positive portal areas and the magnitude of CD5+ and CD20+ cellular infiltrates within areas of ductal invasion is associated with the first evidence of damage of biliary duct epithelia, but becomes reduced in the ductopenia stage, with the exception of CD5+ cells which remain sustained and predominate over CD20+ cells. In conclusion, our data suggest a putative role of B cell autoimmunity in regulating the portal destruction characteristic of PBC.

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The P-v-T properties of polymers play a very important role in the prediction of warpage and shrinkage using computer aided engineering (CAE) programs. The usual measurements of P-v-T properties generally need very low cooling rates in order to make the temperature distribution uniform in the specimen, but the cooling rate in injection moldings is very high and changes with molding conditions. Therefore, the P-v-T properties obtained by the usual methods have some problems in applying them to the analysis of crystallization behaviors in injection moldings. In order to solve these problems the practical P-v-T measurement method has been proposed by taking the cooling rate in injection molding process into account. The undercooling which is defined as the difference between the melting point and the crystallization onset temperature, can be represented as a function of the cooling rate and the pressure history in the injection molding process. We have found that the specific volume of the molded specimen at a pressure 1 atm at 293 K could be estimated as a function of the undercooling. By taking it into account, the specific volume variations with temperature and pressure were calculated from the thermal expansion coefficient ay and the compressibility i. Then the constants of Spencer-Gilmore's equation of state obtained from these P-v-T properties are determined as a function of undercooling. Hence it is shown that the obtained Spencer-Gilmore's equation of state accompanying with appropriate constants indicates good agreement with the P-v-T properties in the solid phase over the wide variations of injection molding conditions.

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