Kohei Ishiyama, Hideki Ohdan, Masahiro Ohira, Hiroshi Mitsuta, Koji Arihiro, Toshimasa Asahara – 26 January 2006 – In rodents, liver natural killer (NK) cells have been shown to mediate higher cytotoxic activity against tumor cells than do peripheral blood (PB) NK cells. However, such differences between liver and PB NK cells have not been extensively investigated in humans. The phenotypical and functional properties of NK cells extracted from liver perfusates at the time of living donor liver transplantation were investigated.

Johannes Wiegand, Peter Buggisch, Wulf Boecher, Stefan Zeuzem, Cornelia M. Gelbmann, Thomas Berg, Wolfgang Kauffmann, Birgit Kallinowski, Markus Cornberg, Elmar Jaeckel, Heiner Wedemeyer, Michael P. Manns – 26 January 2006 – Early treatment of acute hepatitis C with interferon alpha‐2b for 24 weeks prevents chronic infection in almost all patients. Because pegylated interferons have replaced conventional interferon in the therapy of chronic hepatitis C, the aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of an early treatment of acute hepatitis C with peginterferon alfa‐ 2b.

Yuichi Yoshida, Douglas E. Hughes, Francisco M. Rausa, Il‐Man Kim, Yongjun Tan, Gretchen J. Darlington, Robert H. Costa – 26 January 2006 – We previously demonstrated that formation of complexes between the DNA‐binding domains of hepatocyte nuclear factor 6 (HNF6) and forkhead box a2 (Foxa2) proteins stimulated Foxa2 transcriptional activity. Here, we used HepG2 cell cotransfection assays to demonstrate that HNF6 transcriptional activity was stimulated by CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein α (C/EBPα), but not by the related C/EBPβ or C/EBPδ proteins.

Neil Kaplowitz – 26 January 2006

Andrej Khandoga, Marc Hanschen, Julia S. Kessler, Fritz Krombach – 26 January 2006 – The mechanisms by which T cells contribute to the hepatic inflammation during antigen‐independent ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) are not fully understood. We analyzed the recruitment of T cells in the postischemic hepatic microcirculation in vivo and tested the hypothesis that T cells interact with platelets and activate sinusoidal endothelial cells, resulting in microvascular dysfunction followed by tissue injury.

Elias Zintzaras, Ioannis Stefanidis, Mauro Santos, Francesc Vidal – 26 January 2006 – Case–control studies that have investigated the association between alcoholism and alcohol‐induced liver damage and the ADH2, ADH3, CYP2E1, and ADLH2 polymorphisms have reported controversial or inconclusive results. Thus, we conducted a meta‐analysis of 50 association studies of the above polymorphisms.

Michelle Embree‐Ku, Philip A. Gruppuso – 26 January 2006

Cosimo Colletta, Carlo Smirne, Carlo Fabris, Pierluigi Toniutto, Mario Pirisi – 26 January 2006

Yaakov Nahmias, Monica Casali, Laurent Barbe, Francois Berthiaume, Martin L. Yarmush – 26 January 2006 – Low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) is an important carrier of plasma cholesterol and triglycerides whose concentration is regulated by the liver parenchymal cells. Abnormal LDL regulation is thought to cause atherosclerosis, while viral binding to LDL has been suggested to facilitate hepatitis C infection. Primary hepatocytes quickly lose the ability to clear LDL during in vitro culture.

Amelia Mazzone, Pamela Tietz, John Jefferson, Richard Pagano, Nicholas F. LaRusso – 26 January 2006 – Canalicular bile is formed by the osmotic filtration of water in response to osmotic gradients generated by active transport at the apical and basolateral plasma membrane domains of hepatocytes. We recently demonstrated that mixed plasma membrane fractions isolated from rat hepatocyte couplets contain lipid microdomains (“rafts”) enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids and AQP8 and 9.