Kerstin Herzer, Tom M. Ganten, Henning Schulze‐Bergkamen, Anne Grosse‐Wilde, Ronald Koschny, Peter H. Krammer, Henning Walczak – 16 June 2005 – Transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β) has been shown to induce apoptotic cell death in normal and transformed hepatocytes. However, the exact mechanism through which TGF‐β induces cell death is still unknown. We examined a potential role of various death receptor/ligand systems in TGF‐β–induced apoptosis and identified the tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis‐inducing ligand (TRAIL) as a mediator of TGF‐β–induced apoptosis in hepatoma cells.

Christiane Wiegard, Christian Frenzel, Johannes Herkel, Karl‐Josef Kallen, Edgar Schmitt, Ansgar W. Lohse – 16 June 2005 – CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) are important mediators of peripheral immune tolerance; however, whether Treg participate also in hepatic immune tolerance is not clear. Therefore, we tested the potential of Treg to suppress stimulation of CD4+ T cells by liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC), Kupffer cells (KC), or hepatocytes.

George V. Papatheodoridis, Evangelini Dimou, Konstantinos Dimakopoulos, Spilios Manolakopoulos, Irene Rapti, George Kitis, Dimitrios Tzourmakliotis, Emanuel Manesis, Stephanos J. Hadziyannis – 16 June 2005 – We determined the clinical outcome of hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg)‐negative chronic hepatitis B patients treated with long‐term nucleos(t)ide analog therapy starting with lamivudine. We evaluated 201 such patients treated for 3.8 ± 1.4 years and 2 historical similar cohorts: 1 treated with interferon‐alfa (n = 209) and 1 untreated (n = 195).

Carola M. Rosseland, Lene Wierød, Morten P. Oksvold, Heidi Werner, Anne Carine Østvold, G. Hege Thoresen, Ragnhild E. Paulsen, Henrik S. Huitfeldt, Ellen Skarpen – 16 June 2005 – Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are implicated in tissue damage causing primary hepatic dysfunction following ischemia/reperfusion injury and during inflammatory liver diseases. A potential role of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) as a mediator of survival signals during oxidative stress was investigated in primary cultures of hepatocytes exposed to ROS.

Jay H. Hoofnagle – 16 June 2005

Dennis A. Revicki – 16 June 2005

Catherine Guettier, Mylène Sebagh, Jérôme Buard, Danielle Feneux, Monique Ortin‐Serrano, Michele Gigou, Viviane Tricottet, Michel Reynès, Didier Samuel, Cyrille Féray – 16 June 2005 – Male microchimerism is frequent in the adult female liver and is attributed to fetal cells originating from previous male offspring. It has never been studied in pregnant women, female children, or fetuses. We examined its frequency and cellular nature in normal and diseased female livers from fetal life to adulthood.

Florian van Bömmel, Thomas Berg – 16 June 2005

Alex B. Lentsch – 16 June 2005 – The inhibitor of NF‐κB (I‐κB) kinase (IKK) complex consists of 3 subunits, IKK1, IKK2, and NF‐κB essential modulator (NEMO), and is involved in the activation of NF‐κB by various stimuli. IKK2 or NEMO constitutive knockout mice die during embryogenesis as a result of massive hepatic apoptosis. Therefore, we examined the role of IKK2 in TNF‐induced apoptosis and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in the liver by using conditional knockout mice.

Michael A. Heneghan, Ian G. McFarlane – 16 June 2005