It should be noted, however, that while not statistically significant, a higher mean circulating Gal-9 level was indeed observed in patients with cirrhosis in our study (36.3 pg/ml vs 25.5 pg/ml) indicating that sample size may be another explanation for the difference, and that perhaps our results are not that discrepant with the results of the Fujita et al., study. The gene discussed is LGALS9; the disease is Cirrhosis.