Preface

Hepatic fibrosis is a hot topic in basic and clinical hepatology. I had the honor of organizing the APASL single topic conference on hepatic fibrosis (Cairo 2008) and secured the participation of the leading world experts in this field. Their reviews cover the basic, translational and clinical aspects of liver fibrosis. The progress in defining novel approaches to the diagnosis and therapy of hepatic fibrosis is clearly demonstrated by the experts; moreover, the concept of fibrosis reversibility is emerging as a reality and its evaluation in large clinical trials for antifibrotic and antiviral drugs is highly recommended.

In this special edition of the Arab Journal of Gastroenterology I will introduce these state-of-the-art lectures on hepatic fibrosis as an up-to-date review in the field.