Caspase activation is associated with spontaneous recovery from acute liver failure

Abstract

Our data suggest that caspase activation and apoptosis are involved in ALF of patients with spontaneous recovery, whereas caspase-independent cell death might be more relevant in irreversible forms of liver failure. These findings might be important for therapeutic options of ALF but also suggest that measurement of caspase activation might be of prognostic value to predict the outcome of acute liver failure.