Anne Lenaerts, Thierry Codden, Jean‐Claude Meunier, Jean‐Pol Henry, Gaston Ligny – 27 September 2006 – The effects of the addition of clonidine to diuretics on the mobilization of ascites in the short term (diuretic response and requirement of diuretics) and the long term (readmissions for tense ascites and requirement of diuretics) were examined in patients with cirrhosis and with increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. We also studied neurohormonal, hemodynamic effects and side effects of clonidine and diuretics.

Robert J. Fontana, David E. Kleiner, Richard Bilonick, Norah Terrault, Nezam Afdhal, Steven H. Belle, Lennox J. Jeffers, Darmendra Ramcharran, Marc G. Ghany, Jay H. Hoofnagle, Virahep‐C Study Group – 27 September 2006 – Assessment of histological stage is an integral part of disease management in patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Antonio González, Salvador Augustin, Mercedes Pérez, Joan Dot, Esteban Saperas, Alejandro Tomasello, Antoni Segarra, Josep Ramón Armengol, Joan Ramón Malagelada, Rafael Esteban, Jaime Guardia, Joan Genescà – 27 September 2006 – The clinical usefulness of assessing hemodynamic response to drug therapy in the prophylaxis of variceal rebleeding is unknown. An open‐labeled, uncontrolled pilot trial was performed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of using the hemodynamic response to pharmacological treatment to guide therapy in this setting.

Jan Albrecht, Michael D. Norenberg – 27 September 2006 – Mechanisms involved in hepatic encephalopathy still remain to be defined. Nonetheless, it is well recognized that ammonia is a major factor in its pathogenesis, and that the astrocyte represents a major target of its CNS toxicity. In vivo and in vitro studies have shown that ammonia evokes oxidative/nitrosative stress, mitochondrial abnormalities (the mitochondrial permeability transition, MPT) and astrocyte swelling, a major component of the brain edema associated with fulminant hepatic failure.

Vlad Ratziu, Thierry Poynard – 27 September 2006

Sanaa Kamal, Khalifa Khalifa, Khairy Moustafa, Margaret Koziel, Leila El Gohary, Amr Ramy, Nezan Afdhal – 27 September 2006

Cédric Coulouarn, Luis E. Gomez‐Quiroz, Ju‐Seog Lee, Pal Kaposi‐Novak, Elizabeth A. Conner, Tatyana A. Goldina, Galina E. Onishchenko, Valentina M. Factor, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 27 September 2006 – We applied a genome‐wide microarray analysis to three transgenic mouse models of liver cancer in which targeted overexpression of c‐Myc, E2f1, and a combination of the two was driven by the albumin promoter.

Jian‐Hua Luo, Baoguo Ren, Sergei Keryanov, George C. Tseng, Uma N. M. Rao, Satdarshan P. Monga, Steven Strom, Anthony J. Demetris, Michael Nalesnik, Yan P. Yu, Sarangarajan Ranganathan, George K. Michalopoulos – 27 September 2006 – This study analyzed gene expression patterns and global genomic alterations in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), hepatoblastomas (HPBL), tissue adjacent to HCC and normal liver tissue derived from normal livers and hepatic resections.

Renate G. van der Molen, Dave Sprengers, Paula J. Biesta, Johannes G. Kusters, Harry L. A. Janssen – 27 September 2006 – In patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), 2 predominant precursor dendritic cell (DC) subtypes, the myeloid dendritic cell (mDC) and the plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC), were recently found to be functionally impaired. HBV DNA was found to be present in the DC subtypes, but no viral replication could be detected. The question remains whether simply the presence of the virus and viral proteins causes this dysfunction of DCs.

Max Werth, Rolf Gebhardt, Frank Gaunitz – 27 September 2006 – In mammalian liver, high glutamine synthetase (GS) expression is restricted to hepatocytes surrounding the terminal venules. The most important enhancer of the GS gene is located ≈2520 base pairs (bp) upstream from the transcriptional start point. The nature of the transcription factors that bind to the enhancers has remained enigmatic. In this study, we purified nuclear proteins binding to the element.