Evaluating UDCA Effects on PSC Progression

Human liver sections from normal controls (collected as part of liver cholangiocarcinoma resection and considered non-diseased areas) and PSC patients treated with placebo or UDCA (15mg/kg/BW) were utilized (Supplemental Table 1). PSC patients presented with a range of early to late PSC as described in our previous work^{5 (link)}. Liver sections (4-5 μm thick) obtained by needle biopsies from three control patients, three early stage PSC (with or without cirrhosis) and three early stage PSC patients treated with UDCA (with or without cirrhosis). The de-identified samples were provided by Dr. Pietro Invernizzi under a protocol approved by Humanitas Research Hospital; the protocol was approved by the Central Texas Veteran’s Health Care System Institutional Review Board and Research Development Committee. Using acquired human tissue, H&E was performed to assess liver damage that was evaluated by a blinded pathologist; patient serum ALT levels were assessed via colorimetric analysis with an AbCam ALT kit (ab105134).