Shawna L. Ehlers, James R. Rodrigue, Michelle R. Widows, Alan I. Reed, David R. Nelson – 26 February 2004 – Compared to alcohol use, and despite its potential health implications, tobacco use among candidates and recipients of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) has not been the focus of much attention. The purpose of the present study is to examine lifetime pre‐ and post‐OLT prevalence rates of tobacco use, relapse rates after OLT, and comorbid use of alcohol and tobacco.

Roopa Kohli‐Seth, Claude Killu, May Jennifer Amolat, John Oropello, Anthony Manasia, Andrew Leibowitz, Adel Bassily‐Marcus, Ernest Benjamin – 26 February 2004 – Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) has been described after bone marrow, lung, heart‐lung, and renal transplantation, but rarely after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). We report a case of BOOP after OLT to emphasize BOOP as an under diagnosed and treatable cause of nonresolving pneumonia, which may not be preventable by maintenance low‐dose prednisone.

Masayuki Fujino, Yusuke Kitazawa, Mikiko Kawasaki, Naoko Funeshima, Hiromitsu Kimura, Toshiharu Nakajima, Hirohisa Saito, Xiao‐Kang Li – 26 February 2004 – Induction of tolerance to allogeneic donor grafts is a clinically desirable goal in bone marrow and solid organ transplantation. We have taken the advantage of DNA microarray technology to investigate gene expression mechanism in regulatory cells.

Lisa M. Forman, James F. Trotter, Jean Emond – 26 February 2004

Mark W. Russo, Robert S. Brown – 26 February 2004

Christian Moench, Anja Uhrig, Ansgar W. Lohse, Gerd Otto – 26 February 2004 – Ischemic‐type biliary lesions are a major complication following orthotopic liver transplantation. They occur in up to 26% of liver transplant recipients. Among other factors, unknown immunologic factors have always been assumed to be partly responsible for these lesions. CC‐chemokines and their receptors play a key role in postoperative immunomodulation after liver transplantation.

Abhinav Humar, Kambiz Kosari, Timothy D. Sielaff, Brooke Glessing, Maria Gomes, Charles Dietz, Galia Rosen, John Lake, William D. Payne – 26 February 2004 – As the number of living donor (LD) and deceased donor (DD) split‐liver transplants (SLTs) have increased over the last 5 years, so too has the interest in liver regeneration after such partial‐liver transplants. We looked at liver regeneration, as measured by computed tomography (CT) volumetrics, to see if there were significant differences among LDs, right‐lobe LD recipients, and SLT recipients.

Song Iy Han, Elaine Studer, Seema Gupta, Youwen Fang, Liang Qiao, Weiqun Li, Steven Grant, Philip B. Hylemon, Paul Dent – 30 January 2004 – Previously, we demonstrated that deoxycholic acid (DCA)‐induced ERK1/2 and AKT signaling in primary hepatocytes is a protective response. In the present study, we examined the regulation of the phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3) kinase/AKT/glycogen synthase (kinase) 3 (GSK3)/glycogen synthase (GS) pathway by bile acids.

Ali Canbay, Scott Friedman, Gregory J. Gores – 30 January 2004

Adrian M. Di Bisceglie, Steven Strasberg – 30 January 2004 – The Consensus Panel makes the following recommendations based on the above currently available evidence. 1The primary staging should be clinical staging, which can be applied to all patients. The CLIP system should be the clincial staging system of choice, because it is generally applicable to most patients, it includes easily collected variables. Most importantly, it has been externally and prospectively validated.