Hepatitis is caused by viruses

Hepatitis caused by a virus is called viral hepatitis. The virus gets into the bloodstream and then goes to the liver. A person can get sick from a number of viruses, such as hepatitis A, B, C, D, or E. Most of the time, symptoms show up 3–10 days after a virus gets into the body. During this time, the urine turns darker and jaundice starts to show.

Inflammation is how your immune system reacts to damage caused by viruses, bacteria, or other irritants. It helps get rid of what caused the injury, gets rid of dead or damaged cells, and starts the healing process.

The process of inflammation is controlled by immune cells that live in the body, like macrophages, dendritic cells, histiocytes, and Kupffer cells. They find pathogen-associated molecules (PAMPs) and damage-associated molecules (DAMPs) and bind to them.

When the inflammation is bad, it kills liver cells and makes scar tissue that messes up the normal structure of the liver lobules. This is called "bridging necrosis," and it happens when the dead cells come together to form stripes that link the zones of two nearby lobules. Other histopathological signs of hepatic injury are round acidophil (Councilman) bodies and panlobular mononuclear infiltration.

During a chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection, there is a lot of damage to the cells and DNA of the hepatocytes.

This includes DNA rearrangement and mutation inside the cell, unstable chromosomes, and active cell inflammation and growth.

DNA damages are chemical and structural changes in the DNA that can cause disease. This is different from mutations, which change the normal arrangement of the four bases. Among these are insertional mutagenesis, single-strand breaks, and cross-links between strands.

When these problems with cells and DNA go on for a long time, they can lead to fibrosis. This fibrosis may also make the liver stop working.

Your chance of getting HCC depends on where you live and what kind of hepatitis virus you have. HCC is most common in Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa, but the risk is lower elsewhere.

Apoptosis is the process that lets our cells die when they are no longer needed or when they have lived as long as they can. It is a key part of how cells grow and change, and it also helps the immune system in important ways.

During apoptosis, cells change their shape in important ways. These include chromatin condensation, in which a crescent- or ring-shaped structure forms around the edge of the nuclear membrane, the loss of cell contacts, and a decrease in the size of the cell (pyknosis).

Chromatin condensation causes the nucleus to break apart during apoptosis. This allows the DNA to exit the nucleus and be phosphorylated.The cytoplasm also loses water and breaks up into protrusions that look like bubbles. These are called apoptotic bodies.

The bodies of cells that have died are recognized by phagocytic cells, which then eat them. This is the last step in the apoptosis process, which gets rid of the dead cells.

The liver is one of the few body organs that can heal itself after being hurt or sick. In the process of regeneration, liver cells can divide by mitosis, or stem/progenitor cells can be activated to make new hepatocytes and other types of cells.

In the study of liver disease, regeneration is an important topic. Researchers are looking for ways to use the liver's ability to heal itself to treat diseases like cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which cause the liver to die or break down.

Multiple pathways work together in a complicated way to control how the liver heals itself. uPA, growth factors, cytokines, and endothelial cells are the main parts of the healing process.