Pascal Lapierre, Idriss Djilali‐Saiah, Susana Vitozzi, Fernando Alvarez – 25 March 2004 – Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is characterized by an immune‐mediated injury of the hepatic parenchyma of unknown pathogenesis. Type 2 AIH is identified by the presence of anti‐liver‐kidney microsomes type 1 (anti‐LKM1) and anti‐liver cytosol type 1 (anti‐LC1) autoantibodies. The current study shows that a murine model of AIH can be generated by DNA immunization against type 2 AIH self‐antigens (P450 2D6 and formiminotransferase‐cyclodeaminase).

Raffaele Iorio, Mariangela D'Ambrosi, Matilde Marcellini, Christiana Barbera, Giuseppe Maggiore, Lucia Zancan, Raffaella Giacchino, Pietro Vajro, Maria Grazia Marazzi, Ruggiero Francavilla, Fabio Michielutti, Massimo Resti, Tullio Frediani, Maria Pastore, Angela Vegnente – 25 March 2004

Pietro Invernizzi, Domenico Alvaro, Andrea Crosignani, Eugenio Gaudio, Mauro Podda – 25 March 2004

Chengbin Wang, Jianming Tang, Wei Song, Elena Lobashevsky, Craig M. Wilson, Richard A. Kaslow – 25 March 2004 – Variable immune responses to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and recombinant HBV vaccines have been associated with polymorphisms in several genes within the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex.

Jacquelyn J. Maher – 25 March 2004

James R. Jacob, Agnes Sterczer, Ilia A. Toshkov, Amy E. Yeager, Brent E. Korba, Paul J. Cote, Marie‐Annick Buendia, John L. Gerin, Bud C. Tennant – 25 March 2004 – Integrations of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA and rearrangements of the N‐myc 2 gene have been detected frequently in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of Eastern woodchucks (Marmota monax) chronically infected with WHV.

Harvey J. Alter – 25 March 2004

Yoichi Chida, Nobuyuki Sudo, Junko Sonoda, Hiroshi Sogawa, Chiharu Kubo – 25 March 2004 – Recently, liver natural killer T (NKT) cells, which are specifically stimulated by α‐galactosylceramide (α‐GalCer), were found to play a critical role in intrahepatic immunity to several infections and certain hepatic disorders. However, the role of psychophysical stress on NKT cell–dependent liver injury induced by α‐GalCer still remains to be elucidated.

Pierre‐Michel Huet, Marcia R. Nagaoka, Geneviève Desbiens, Esther Tarrab, Antoine Brault, Marie‐Pierre Bralet, Marc Bilodeau – 25 March 2004 – Cold ischemia‐warm reperfusion (CI‐WR) injury of the liver is characterized by marked alterations of sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs), whereas hepatocytes appear to be relatively unscathed. However, the time course and mechanism of cell death remain controversial: early versus late phenomenon, necrosis versus apoptosis?

Ursula Ehmer, Arndt Vogel, Jan Karl Schütte, Britta Krone, Michael P. Manns, Christian P. Strassburg – 25 March 2004 – UDP‐glucuronosyltransferases are a family of drug metabolizing enzymes contributing to hepatic drug metabolism and protection against environmental toxins. The aim of this study was to identify polymorphisms at the human UGT1A gene locus and to characterize their function and potential association with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).