Expression of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and its receptor gp190 in human liver and in cultured human liver myofibroblasts. Cloning of new isoforms of LIF mRNA

Background The cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) mediates its biological effects through binding to its high affinity receptor made of the low-affinity LIF receptor subunit gp190 (LIF-R) and the gp130 subunit. LIF exerts several important effects in the liver, however, data on liver expression of LIF are scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of LIF and LIF-R in human liver.