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Protect thee from the sins of thy fathers?

Hepatic fibrosis results from chronic liver injury due to viral infection, metabolic diseases, toxins such as alcohol, or immune attack. Now, a heritable epigenetic determinant of fibrosis has been uncovered, providing evidence that sperm from male rats with liver injury confers reduced fibrosis in their male offspring (pages 1369– 1377).

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Figure 1: Paternal epigenetic suppression of hepatic fibrosis in male progeny via a transmissible factor.

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Correspondence to Scott L Friedman.

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Friedman, S. Protect thee from the sins of thy fathers?. Nat Med 18, 1331–1332 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2936

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