Lizhe Xu, Michael Sakalian, Zhiwei Shen, George Loss, James Neuberger, Andrew Mason – 5 January 2004 – Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) have both serologic and tissue evidence of infection. A recently identified human betaretrovirus was originally cloned from the biliary epithelium cDNA library of a patient with PBC. By conducting a BLASTN search, the initial partial pol gene fragment was found to have 95% to 97% nucleotide homology with mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) and with retrovirus sequences derived from human breast cancer samples.

Bernhard Zöllner, Jörg Petersen, Elisabeth Puchhammer‐Stöckl, Josef Kletzmayr, Martina Sterneck, Lutz Fischer, Matthias Schröter, Rainer Laufs, Heinz‐Hubert Feucht – 5 January 2004 – Viral differences among lamivudine resistant hepatitis B (HBV) genotypes have not been yet investigated. Therefore, we analyzed the characteristics of these viral strains in vivo. Forty‐one patients carrying lamivudine resistant HBV were enrolled. Twenty‐six patients (63%) carried resistant HBV genotype A (group A) and 15 patients (37%) carried resistant HBV genotype D (group D).

Fausto Andreola, Diego F. Calvisi, Guillermo Elizondo, Sonia B. Jakowlew, Jennifer Mariano, Frank J. Gonzalez, Luigi M. De Luca – 5 January 2004 – Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR)‐null mice display a liver fibrosis phenotype that is associated with a concomitant increase in liver retinoid concentration, tissue transglutaminase type II (TGaseII) activity, transforming growth factorβ (TGFβ) overexpression, and accumulation of collagen.

5 January 2004

Diego Vergani, Dimitrios‐Petrou Bogdanos, Harold Baum – 5 January 2004

Markus Grompe – 5 January 2004

5 January 2004

5 January 2004

Don C. Rockey, Vijay Shah – 5 January 2004

Claudia O. Zein, Keith D. Lindor, Paul Angulo – 5 January 2004 – Patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) may develop and bleed from esophageal varices. However, the exact prevalence of esophageal varices in patients with PSC remains unknown and potential predictors of esophageal varices in this population have not been identified. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of esophageal varices in patients with PSC and the variables that predict their presence.