Alessandro Perrella, Guglielmo Borgia, Oreste Perrella – 14 October 2004

Adrian Reuben – 14 October 2004

Joyce J. Repa, Kimberly K. Buhman, Robert V. Farese, John M. Dietschy, Stephen D. Turley – 14 October 2004 – Acyl CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) 2 is the major cholesterol‐esterifying enzyme in mouse enterocytes and hepatocytes. Male ACAT2+/+ and ACAT2−/ − mice were fed chow containing added cholesterol (0%‐0.500% w/w) for 24 days. Over this range, fractional cholesterol absorption in the ACAT2+/+ mice fell from 41.4% ± 6.6% to 21.0% ± 5.2%, and in their ACAT2−/− counterparts it fell from 35.1% ± 4.5% to 7.9% ± 0.8%.

Motoaki Imose, Masahito Nagaki, Kiminori Kimura, Shinji Takai, Motohiro Imao, Takafumi Naiki, Yosuke Osawa, Takahiko Asano, Hideki Hayashi, Hisataka Moriwaki – 28 September 2004 – Leflunomide is a novel immunosuppressive and anti‐inflammatory agent for the treatment of autoimmune disease. The aim of this study was to investigate whether leflunomide protects from liver injury induced by concanavalin A (Con A), a T‐cell–dependent model of liver damage. BALB/c mice were injected with 25 mg/kg Con A in the presence or absence of 30 mg/kg leflunomide.

Scott T. Magness, Ramón Bataller, Liu Yang, David A. Brenner – 22 September 2004 – Activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and other resident mesenchymal cells into myofibroblasts expressing alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA) and collagen I is a key event in liver fibrogenesis. However, the temporal expression profiles of αSMA and collagen I genes in these cells is unknown.

Martial Jaume, Sébastien Jacquet, Pierre Cavaillès, Gaëtane Macé, Lionel Stephan, Catherine Blanpied, Cécile Demur, Pierre Brousset, Gilles Dietrich – 22 September 2004 – Fas (CD95)‐induced hepatocyte apoptosis and cytotoxic activity of neutrophils infiltrating the injured liver are two major events leading to hepatitis. Because it has been reported that opioids, via a direct interaction, sensitize splenocytes to Fas‐mediated apoptosis by upregulating Fas messenger RNA (mRNA) and modulated neutrophil activity, we assumed that opioids may participate in the pathophysiology of hepatitis.

Christopher J. Parsons, Blair U. Bradford, Clark Q. Pan, Ellen Cheung, Michael Schauer, Andreas Knorr, Barbara Krebs, Sabine Kraft, Stefan Zahn, Bodo Brocks, Nikki Feirt, Baisong Mei, Myung‐Sam Cho, Roopa Ramamoorthi, Greg Roldan, Paul Ng, Peggy Lum, Claudia Hirth‐Dietrich, Adrian Tomkinson, David A. Brenner – 22 September 2004 – Liver fibrosis is characterized by increased synthesis, and decreased degradation, of extracellular matrix (ECM) within the injured tissue.

Shoshiro Oe, Eric R. Lemmer, Elizabeth A. Conner, Valentina M. Factor, Per Levéen, Jonas Larsson, Stefan Karlsson, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 22 September 2004 – Transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β) is a potent inhibitor of hepatocyte proliferation in vitro and is suggested to be a key negative regulator of liver growth.

M.

Erick Edwards, Ann Harper – 21 September 2004 – Key Points 1Based on OPTN data, the ability of the model for end‐stage liver disease (MELD) to predict short‐term pretransplant and posttransplant outcomes was assessed.2Concordance with pretransplant mortality was excellent.3Concordance with pretransplant mortality was better for candidates listed for a primary transplant.4Of the MELD components, there were no statistically significant differences in the effects on pretransplant mortality between candidates listed for a primary or a repeat transplant.5Concordance with posttranplant outcomes w