Does hepatitis C virus infection reduce hepatocellular polarity in a vascular endothelial growth factor-dependent manner?
Hepatic polarity is critical to normal liver physiology. HCV infection promotes VEGF expression that depolarizes hepatoma cells, promoting viral transmission and lymphocyte migration into the parenchyma that may promote hepatocyte injury.
Elf3 is an important regulator of morphogenesis and terminal differentiation of epithelial cell lineages in the small intestine.