Valerie Paradis, Ingrid Laurendeau, Michel Vidaud, Pierre Bedossa, The METAVIR Group – 30 December 2003 – Several arguments suggest that most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) occurring in human cirrhotic livers arise from large hepatocellular nodules or macronodules. Except for nodules with obvious features of HCC, there exist no consistent criteria enabling the differentiation between benign regenerative and neoplastic, potentially malignant macronodules. Surrogate markers able to accurately discriminate those lesions that will evolve toward a HCC are required.

Robert L. Owen – 30 December 2003

Nobuyuki Morikawa, Makoto Suematsu, Takanori Kyokane, Nobuhito Goda, Yusuke Kumamoto, Taro Okitsu, Yuzuru Ishimura, Masaki Kitajima – 30 December 2003 – Although discontinuous total parenteral nutrition (d‐TPN) has recently been favored for clinical use over continuous total parenteral nutrition (c‐TPN) to ameliorate liver dysfunction, mechanisms for the protection against postoperative liver dysfunction remain unknown. This study aimed to examine differences in mitochondrial function in d‐TPN‐ and c‐TPN–pretreated livers during ischemia‐reperfusion.

Arthur J. McCullough, Kevin D. Mullen, Satish C. Kalhan – 30 December 2003 – The metabolic fate of leucine's first and second carbon may be different depending on the tissue in which leucine is metabolized, as well as the prevailing hormonal milieu of that tissue. However, previous studies of leucine kinetics in humans have used only leucine labeled (as tracer) at the first carbon position.

Belén del Santo, Raquel Valdés, João Mata, Antonio Felipe, F. Javier Casado, Marçal Pastor‐Anglada – 30 December 2003 – Primary cultures of rat‐liver parenchymal cells show carrier‐mediated nucleoside uptake by a mechanism that mainly involves concentrative, Na+‐dependent transport activity. In contrast, the hepatoma cell line FAO shows high nucleoside transport activity, although it is mostly accounted for by Na+‐independent transport processes. This is associated with a low amount of sodium purine nucleoside transporter (SPNT) mRNA.

Naoyuki Kawahara, Mayumi Ono, Ken‐ichi Taguchi, Masahiro Okamoto, Mitsuo Shimada, Kenji Takenaka, Kenshi Hayashi, Dean F. Mosher, Keizo Sugimachi, Masazumi Tsuneyoshi, Michihiko Kuwano – 30 December 2003 – Cholangiocarcinoma (CCC) is relatively hypovascular, in contrast to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is often highly vascular.

Claus Niederau, Stefan Lange, Tobias Heintges, Andreas Erhardt, Marlies Buschkamp, Dietmar Hürter, Marek Nawrocki, Lothar Kruska, Frank Hensel, Wolfgang Petry, Dieter Häussinger – 30 December 2003 – The prognosis of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is still ill‐defined. The present study prospectively evaluated mortality and complications in a large cohort of patients with chronic hepatitis C. The study included 838 anti‐HCV and HCV‐RNA–positive patients who were followed for 50.2 ± 26.9 months (mean ± SD; range, 6‐122 months) in a prospective protocol.

Volker Dries, Ingo von Both, Marion Müller, Guido Gerken, Peter Schirmacher, Margarete Odenthal, Ralf Bartenschlager, Uta Drebber, Karl‐Hermann Meyer zum Büschenfelde, Hans Peter Dienes – 30 December 2003 – The diagnosis of hepatitis C is based on serological testing for antibodies against various epitopes of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and detection of HCV RNA in serum, because anti‐HCV antibodies alone cannot discriminate patients who are infectious from those who have resolved the infection.

Thierry Chinet, Laura Fouassier, Nathalie Dray‐Charier, Mama Imam‐Ghali, Hugues Morel, Martine Mergey, Bertrand Dousset, Rolland Parc, Annick Paul, Chantal Housset – 30 December 2003 – Fluid and ion transport across biliary epithelium contributes to bile flow. Alterations of this function may explain hepatobiliary complications in cystic fibrosis (CF). We investigated electrogenic anion transport across intact non‐CF and CF human gallbladder mucosa in Ussing‐type chambers.

Marco Arrese, Michael Trauner, Robert J. Sacchiero, Michael W. Crossman, Benjamin L. Shneider – 30 December 2003 – The regulatory responses of bile acid (BA) transport in the terminal ileum to perturbations in BA homeostasis are complex, and conflicting results have been reported by different investigators. These studies were designed to examine the response of this system to a reduction in ileal bile salt concentrations at both a functional and molecular level.