F Cassani, M Cataleta, P Valentini, P Muratori, F Giostra, R Francesconi, L Muratori, M Lenzi, G Bianchi, D Zauli, F B Bianchi – 30 December 2003 – Antibodies to nuclei (ANA), smooth muscle (SMA), and liver/kidney microsomes type 1 (anti‐LKM1) may occur in chronic hepatitis C. Distinct subspecificities, including ANA with the homogeneous pattern (ANA‐H) and SMA with antiactin specificity (SMA‐AA), are found in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).

F Nakazawa, M Sawa, B Jiang, K Onodera, S Kasai, M Mito – 30 December 2003 – The functional ability of hepatic stimulatory substance (HSS)‐stimulated proliferating hepatocytes was investigated by intrasplenic and/or intraportal transplantation in ascorbic acid (AsA) biosynthetic enzyme‐deficient (ODS‐od/od) rats that die of osteogenic disorders unless there is AsA supplementation. HSS was extracted from regenerating porcine livers.

H Yeh, C D Schteingart, L R Hagey, H Ton‐Nu, U Bolder, M A Gavrilkina, J H Steinbach, A F Hofmann – 30 December 2003 – To assess the effect of side chain length on the metabolism and physiological effects of homologues of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), dinorCDCA, the C22 homologue, was synthesized and its hepatic biotransformation, transport kinetics, and choleretic properties were defined in rat and hamster biliary fistula and in isolated perfused rat liver. Results were compared with those of norCDCA, the C23 homologue, and of CDCA, the natural C24 homologue.

M Guido, M Rugge, G Leandro, I M Fiel, S N Thung – 30 December 2003 – Patients with chronic viral hepatitis are at high risk of developing cirrhosis, but the outcome of the disease in a given patient is unpredictable. Hepatic stellate cells have been demonstrated to be the most important cell type involved in hepatic fibrogenesis, regardless of the cause of the liver injury. The α isotype of actin (a phenotypic marker of smooth muscle cells) may be expressed by hepatic stellate cells, reflecting their “activation” to myofibroblast‐like cells.

M H Lehmann – 30 December 2003

G A MacDonald, J K Greenson, E A DelBuono, W M Grady, R M Merion, T S Frank, M R Lucey, H D Appelman – 30 December 2003 – Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a significant cause of morbidity in immunosuppressed patients. It is characterized in the liver by parenchymal microabscesses, usually containing CMV‐infected cells. However, not all hepatic microabscesses are due to CMV infection. In 1992, we described “mini” microabscess (MMA) syndrome, a distinct clinical syndrome that occurs in transplanted livers.

J A Gonzalez‐Correa, J P De La Cruz, E Martin‐Aurioles, M A Lopez‐Egea, P Ortiz, F Sanchez de la Cuesta – 30 December 2003 – We used an animal model of extrahepatic biliary obstruction of 7 days' duration to study the production of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), total glutathione (TG), reduced glutathione (GSH), and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), and the enzymatic activities of GSH‐ peroxidase, GSSG‐reductase, and GSH‐transferase.

T Armbrust, B Nordmann, M Kreißig, G Ramadori – 30 December 2003 – The subcomponent of complement C1, C1q, mediates complement activation via the classical pathway, and therefore may play an important role in the inflammatory processes in which complement activation is involved. The aim of our study was to investigate C1q synthesis by macrophages of normal and of acutely damaged livers. The localization of C1q in liver tissue was studied by immunohistochemistry.

30 December 2003

A C Anand, B H Ferraz‐Neto, P Nightingale, D F Mirza, A C White, P McMaster, J M Neuberger – 30 December 2003 – We have used a formal transplant protocol to select patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) for transplantation. We retrospectively analyzed all the patients with ALD who were referred specifically for transplantation to our Liver Unit between 1987 and 1994. Patients were selected for liver transplantation if they had end‐stage liver disease and had remained abstinent from the time they were medically advised to stop alcohol intake.