Manuel Hernández‐Guerra, Eric López, Pablo Bellot, Carlos Piera, Juan Turnes, Juan G. Abraldes, Jaime Bosch, Juan C. García‐Pagán – 22 December 2005 – Budd‐Chiari syndrome (BCS) causes postsinusoidal portal hypertension, which leads to complications similar to those observed in cirrhosis. However, no studies have investigated whether patients with BCS develop the hyperdynamic circulatory syndrome present in patients with cirrhosis who have portal hypertension.

Yoshiaki Iwasaki, Hiroshi Ikeda, Yasuyuki Araki, Toshiya Osawa, Keiji Kita, Masaharu Ando, Toshinari Shimoe, Kouichi Takaguchi, Noriaki Hashimoto, Toshitsugu Kobatake, Minoru Tomita, Mitsuhiko Kawaguchi, Haruhiko Kobashi, Kohsaku Sakaguchi, Yasushi Shiratori – 22 December 2005 – In contrast to the United States, Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C currently treated with interferon are generally 10 to 15 years older. Older patients, however, tend to experience more frequent adverse events.

Alexander I. Aspinall, David H. Adams – 22 December 2005

Andres T. Blei – 22 December 2005

Isabelle Chemin, Sophie Alain, Séverine Margeridon, Saad Mrani, Alan Kay, Christian Trépo – 22 December 2005

Eva Martínez‐Bauer, Javier Crespo, Manuel Romero‐Gómez, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero, Ricard Solá, Nancy Tesei, Fernando Pons, Xavier Forns, José M. Sánchez‐Tapias – 22 December 2005 – Early prediction of response to therapy in genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C is difficult. Two predictive models, a pretreatment scoring model (PreT‐SM) and a fourth week of therapy scoring model (4w‐SM) were constructed in a cohort of 104 patients from a single center (estimation cohort) and validated in a cohort of 141 patients from four independent centers (validation cohort).

Susanne Keiding, Michael Sørensen, Dirk Bender, Ole Lajord Munk, Peter Ott, Hendrik Vilstrup – 22 December 2005 – Animal studies and results from 13N‐ammonia positron emission tomography (PET) in patients with cirrhosis and minimal hepatic encephalopathy suggest that a disturbed brain ammonia metabolism plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy (HE).

Walid S. Kamoun, Amel Karaa, Nicole Kresge, Sandra M. Merkel, Katarzyna Korneszczuk, Mark G. Clemens – 22 December 2005 – During endotoxemia, liver microcirculation disruption is characterized by a hypersensitivity to the constrictor effects of endothelin 1 (ET‐1). The shift of ET‐1–mediated effects toward vasoconstriction may result from depressed ET‐1–mediated vasodilation through decreased ET‐1–induced nitric oxide (NO) production.

Ying Huang, Xinyi Cynthia Chen, Madhavi Konduri, Nadejda Fomina, Jin Lu, Ling Jin, Alexander Kolykhalov, Seng‐Lai Tan – 22 December 2005 – Interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) exerts potent antiviral activity in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicon systems. However, the mechanisms underlying the direct antiviral effect have not been determined. We found that the type II transcriptional response to IFN‐γ could be suppressed by inhibition of MEK1/2 kinase activity by MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126 in the hepatoma cell line Huh‐7.

Juan Turnes, Manuel Hernández‐Guerra, Juan G. Abraldes, Pau Bellot, Rafael Oliva, Juan Carlos García‐Pagán, Jaime Bosch – 22 December 2005 – The beta‐2‐adrenergic receptor (β2‐‐AR) has several single‐nucleotide polymorphisms. These influence the functional response to adrenergic stimulation; genotypes homozygous for Gly16‐Glu27 or Gly16‐Gln27 alleles (Gly16‐Glu/Gln27 haplotypes) are associated with enhanced response, whereas genotypes homozygous for Arg16‐Gln27 alleles (Arg16‐Gln27) show a decreased response.