Koji Ishii, Domenico Rosa, Yushiro Watanabe, Tohru Katayama, Hideharu Harada, Colby Wyatt, Kendo Kiyosawa, Hideki Aizaki, Yoshiharu Matsuura, Michael Houghton, Sergio Abrignani, Tatsuo Miyamura – 30 December 2003 – Most cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection result in chronic disease; however, a very small fraction of patients naturally clear the virus and resolve chronic hepatitis. In an attempt to correlate immune response with chronic disease resolution, we compared the antibody response in patients with different outcomes of the infection.

Daryl T. Lau, David E. Kleiner, Marc G. Ghany, Yoon Park, Peter Schmid, Jay H. Hoofnagle – 30 December 2003 – Sustained responses to interferon‐α occur in 10% to 25% of patients with chronic hepatitis C, but the long‐term outcome is not well defined. We evaluated the long‐term clinical, histological, and virological outcomes of 10 patients with chronic hepatitis C who were treated between 1984 and 1987 with interferon‐α‐2b for 52 ± 6 weeks (total doses of 492 ± 116 MU).

Paresh N. Soni, David Brown, Roggieh Saffie, Kay Savage, Duncan Moore, Gregory Gregoriadis, Geoffrey M. Dusheiko – 30 December 2003 – This study investigated the feasibility of using liposomes to increase the hepatic delivery and antiviral efficacy of phosphorothioate antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (PS‐ODN) for the in vivo treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Ducks infected with duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) were used as the model.

Jeanne LaBerge, Vickie A. Feldstein – 30 December 2003

Xiao‐Zhong Guo, Helmut Friess, Fabio F. Di Mola, Jean‐Marc Heinicke, Mohamed Abou‐Shady, Hans U. Graber, Hans U. Baer, Arthur Zimmermann, Murray Korc, Markus W. Büchler – 30 December 2003 – Down‐regulation of KAI1 expression has been shown to be associated with formation of metastases or disease progression in prostate and pancreatic cancer.

Timo M. Buetler – 30 December 2003 – Because acute infection and inflammation affect drug metabolism and drug‐metabolizing enzymes, the effect of the acute‐phase response on the expression of glutathione S‐transferase (GST) isoenzymes, glutathione synthesis, and several antioxidant enzymes was investigated. Hepatic expression of GST isozymes, positive and negative acute‐phase reactants, and antioxidant enzymes were determined by Northern blotting and hybridization with gene‐specific oligonucleotide probes after lipopolysaccharide treatment of rats.

Fujio Matsumura, Yasuo Yamaguchi, Mataro Goto, Osamu Ichiguchi, Eiji Akizuki, Teishi Matsuda, Kazutoshi Okabe, Jian Liang, Hajime Ohshiro, Takeshi Iwamoto, Shinwa Yamada, Katsutaka Mori, Michio Ogawa – 30 December 2003 – We investigated the effects of the xanthine oxidase inhibitor, BOF‐4272, on the production of cytokine‐induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) following reperfusion injury in rat liver. Ischemia was induced for 30 minutes by portal vein occlusion.

Tomonobu Gion, Akinobu Taketomi, Mitsuo Shimada, Ken Shirabe, Hirofumi Hasegawa, Kenji Takenaka, Keizo Sugimachi – 30 December 2003 – A quantitative assay of albumin messenger RNA (mRNA) in blood samples was designed using the competitive reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction, and the significance of measuring albumin mRNA levels in the blood of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatic resection was evaluated.

Ichiro Shimizu, Yue‐Rong Ma, Yoko Mizobuchi, Fei Liu, Tetsuo Miura, Yoichiro Nakai, Mitugi Yasuda, Masako Shiba, Takahiro Horie, Sakae Amagaya, Norifumi Kawada, Hitoshi Hori, Susumu Ito – 30 December 2003 – It has been shown that lipid peroxidation is associated with hepatic fibrosis and stellate cell activation. Sho‐saiko‐to (TJ‐9) is an herbal medicine, which is commonly used to treat chronic hepatitis in Japan, although the mechanism by which TJ‐9 protects against hepatic fibrosis is not known.

Ian M. Gralnek, Dennis M. Jensen, Thomas O. Kovacs, Rome Jutabha, Gustavo A. Machicado, Jeffrey Gornbein, Joy King, Susie Cheng, Mary Ellen Jensen – 30 December 2003 – Esophageal variceal hemorrhage (EVH) is a serious and expensive sequela of chronic liver disease, leading to increased utilization of resources. Today, endoscopic sclerotherapy (ES) and endoscopic ligation (EL) are the accepted, community standards of endoscopic treatment of patients with EVH. However, there are no published studies comparing the economic costs of treating EVH using these interventions.