Stephan Singer, Volker Ehemann, Antje Brauckhoff, Martina Keith, Sebastian Vreden, Peter Schirmacher, Kai Breuhahn – 24 August 2007 – The microtubule (MT)‐destabilizing protein stathmin/Op18 has previously been described to be negatively regulated by p53 and to be highly expressed in several tumor entities. However, little is known about its expression profile, functional or therapeutic relevance, and regulation in human hepatocarcinogenesis.

17 August 2007

Lee‐Jun C. Wong, Nicola Brunetti‐Pierri, Qing Zhang, Nada Yazigi, Kevin E. Bove, Beverly B. Dahms, Michelle A. Puchowicz, Ignacio Gonzalez‐Gomez, Eric S. Schmitt, Cavatina K. Truong, Charles L. Hoppel, Ping‐Chieh Chou, Jing Wang, Erin E. Baldwin, Darius Adams, Nancy Leslie, Richard G. Boles, Douglas S. Kerr, William J. Craigen – 10 August 2007 – MPV17 is a mitochondrial inner membrane protein of unknown function recently recognized as responsible for a mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

Hannah Jackson, Masoud Solaymani‐Dodaran, Tim R. Card, Guruprasad P. Aithal, Richard Logan, Joe West – 8 August 2007 – There is debate over the mortality and malignancy risk in people with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and whether this risk is reduced by use of ursodeoxycholic acid. To investigate this issue, we identified 930 people with PBC and 9,202 control subjects from the General Practice Research Database in the United Kingdom. We categorized regular ursodeoxycholic acid as treatment with 6 or more prescriptions and nonregular treatment as less than 6.

Sammy Saab, Mamie H. Dong, Tom A. Joseph, Myron J. Tong – 6 August 2007 – Hepatitis B reactivation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing chemotherapy for lymphomas. These patients may experience direct liver‐related complications or reduced cancer survival because of interruptions in chemotherapy. Our aim was to compare the costs and outcomes of 2 different chronic hepatitis B management strategies.

Tove Berg, C. Bart Rountree, Lily Lee, Joaquin Estrada, Fréderic G. Sala, Andrea Choe, Jacqueline M. Veltmaat, Stijn De Langhe, Rene Lee, Hide Tsukamoto, Gay M. Crooks, Saverio Bellusci, Kasper S. Wang – 1 August 2007 – Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling and β‐catenin activation have been shown to be crucial for early embryonic liver development. This study determined the significance of FGF10‐mediated signaling in a murine embryonic liver progenitor cell population as well as its relation to β‐catenin activation.

Jacob Nattermann, Martin Vogel, Thomas Berg, Mark Danta, Baumgarten Axel, Christoph Mayr, Raffaele Bruno, Christina Tural, Gerd Klausen, Bonaventura Clotet, Thomas Lutz, Frank Grünhage, Michael Rausch, Hans Dieter Nischalke, Knud Schewe, Bernhard Bienek, Georg Haerter, Tilman Sauerbruch, Juergen K. Rockstroh, Ulrich Spengler – 1 August 2007 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV)/human immunodeficirency virus (HIV) coinfection poses a difficult therapeutic problem. Response to HCV‐specific therapy is variable but might be influenced by host genetic factors, including polymorphisms of cytokine genes.

Kristina Rutkute, Alexander A. Karakashian, Natalia V. Giltiay, Aneta Dobierzewska, Mariana N. Nikolova‐Karakashian – 1 August 2007 – The process of aging has recently been shown to substantially affect the ability of cells to respond to inflammatory challenges. We demonstrate that aging leads to hepatic hyperresponsiveness to interleukin 1β (IL‐1β), and we examine the factors that could be responsible for this phenomenon. IL‐1β‐induced phosphorylation of c‐jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) in hepatocytes isolated from aged rats was 3 times more potent than that in hepatocytes from young rats.

Robert E. Lanford, Bernadette Guerra, Catherine B. Bigger, Helen Lee, Deborah Chavez, Kathleen M. Brasky – 1 August 2007 – The mechanism of the interferon‐alpha (IFNα)–induced antiviral response is not completely understood. We recently examined the transcriptional response to IFNα in uninfected chimpanzees. The transcriptional response to IFNα in the liver and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was rapidly induced but was also rapidly down‐regulated, with most interferon‐alpha–stimulated genes (ISGs) returning to the baseline within 24 hours.

Aldo J. Montano‐Loza, Herschel A. Carpenter, Albert J. Czaja – 1 August 2007 – Autoimmune hepatitis may fail to respond to corticosteroid therapy, but the frequency and bases for this outcome are uncertain. We aimed to determine the frequency and nature of treatment failure in patients with type 1 autoimmune hepatitis, define features associated with its occurrence, and assess if the model for end‐stage liver disease can predict this outcome. Patients failing conventional corticosteroid regimens were compared to patients who responded to similar regimens.