Results of the IDEAL trial: “Mirror, mirror on the wall … Which's the fairest peg‐interferon of them all?”
Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, Ansgar W. Lohse – 20 November 2009
High diversity of hepatitis C viral quasispecies is associated with early virological response in patients undergoing antiviral therapy
Xiaofeng Fan, Qing Mao, Donghui Zhou, Yang Lu, Jianwei Xing, Yanjuan Xu, Stuart C. Ray, Adrian M. Di Bisceglie – 20 November 2009 – Differential response patterns to optimal antiviral therapy, peginterferon alpha plus ribavirin, are well documented in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Among many factors that may affect therapeutic efficiency, HCV quasispecies (QS) characteristics have been a major focus of previous studies, yielding conflicting results.
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Gisele N'Kontchou, Michel Beaugrand, Olivier Seror – 20 November 2009
Variability in the upper limit of normal for serum alanine aminotransferase levels: A statewide study
Anand Dutta, Chandan Saha, Cynthia S. Johnson, Naga Chalasani – 20 November 2009 – We conducted a study to characterize the variability in the upper limit of normal (ULN) for alanine aminotransferase (ALT) across different laboratories (labs) in Indiana and to understand factors leading to such variability. A survey was mailed to all eligible labs (n = 108) in Indiana, and the response rate was 62%. The survey queried for ALT ULN, the type of chemical analyzer used, five College of American Pathologists (CAP) sample results, and methods used to establish the reference interval.
BH3‐only protein bid participates in the Bcl‐2 network in healthy liver cells
Hayato Hikita, Tetsuo Takehara, Takahiro Kodama, Satoshi Shimizu, Atsushi Hosui, Takuya Miyagi, Tomohide Tatsumi, Hisashi Ishida, Kazuyoshi Ohkawa, Wei Li, Tatsuya Kanto, Naoki Hiramatsu, Lothar Hennighausen, Xiao‐Ming Yin, Norio Hayashi – 20 November 2009 – Bcl‐2 homology domain 3 (BH3)‐only protein Bid is posttranslationally cleaved by caspase‐8 into its truncated form (tBid) and couples with stress signals to the mitochondrial cell death pathway. However, the physiological relevance of Bid is not clearly understood.
Fibrosis progression in chronic hepatitis C: Morphometric image analysis in the HALT‐C trial
Zachary D. Goodman, Anne M. Stoddard, Herbert L. Bonkovsky, Robert J. Fontana, Marc G. Ghany, Timothy R. Morgan, Elizabeth C. Wright, Elizabeth M. Brunt, David E. Kleiner, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Gregory T. Everson, Karen L. Lindsay, Jules L. Dienstag, Chihiro Morishima, HALT‐C Trial Group – 20 November 2009 – Computer‐assisted morphometry can provide precise measurement of hepatic fibrosis on a continuous scale. Previous morphometric studies of large cohorts of patients with treatment refractory chronic hepatitis C have shown a mean increase in fibrosis of 30% to 58% in 1 year.
Radiofrequency ablation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Florence Aslinia, Ayse L. Mindikoglu – 20 November 2009
Alanine aminotransferase: Is it healthy to be “normal”?
D. Robert Dufour – 20 November 2009
Innate response to hepatitis B virus infection: Observations challenging the concept of a stealth virus
David Durantel, Fabien Zoulim – 20 November 2009
Novel role for epidermal growth factor‐like domain 7 in metastasis of human hepatocellular carcinoma
Fan Wu, Lian‐Yue Yang, Yun‐Feng Li, Di‐Peng Ou, Dong‐Ping Chen, Chun Fan – 20 November 2009 – Epidermal growth factor‐like domain 7 (Egfl7) is a recently identified secreted protein that is believed to be primarily expressed in endothelial cells (ECs). Although its expression was reported elevated during tumorigenesis, whether and how Egfl7 contributes to human malignancies remains unknown. In the present study overexpression of Egfl7 was found predominantly in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells in HCC tissues and closely correlated with poor prognosis of HCC.