F J Laso, J I Madruga, J A Giron, A Lopez, J Ciudad, J F San Miguel, M Alvarez‐Mon, A Orfao – 30 December 2003 – Chronic alcohol intake is associated with an increased incidence of certain neoplasms. Natural killer (NK) cells have been considered to be involved in control tumor development and growth. The goal of the present study was to contribute to a better understanding of the effects of ethanol (EtOH) per se on the NK‐cell population.

W F Salminen, S M Roberts, M Fenna, R Voellmy – 30 December 2003 – The effect of cocaine on heat shock protein (hsp) induction in murine liver was examined using Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. A single dose of cocaine (50 mg/kg, intraperitoneal [i.p.]) was administered to naive, phenobarbital (PB)‐induced or β‐naphthoflavone (βNF)‐induced mice, and the level of hsps in the liver analyzed 3, 6, and 24 hours after the cocaine dose. As measured by Western blotting, hsp70i levels were increased at all time points, and hsp25 levels at the 6‐ and 24‐hour time points.

M R Lucey, K Carr, T P Beresford, L R Fisher, V Shieck, K A Brown, D A Campbell, H D Appelman – 30 December 2003 – The purposes of this study were to determine among a cohort of long‐term alcoholic survivors after liver transplantation (1) the incidence of alcohol use, (2) its effect on allograft integrity and extrahepatic health, and (3) the validity of the pretransplant alcohol prognosis screening process.

J M Lopez‐Alcorocho, A Millan, E R Garcia‐Trevijano, J Bartolome, M Ruiz‐Moreno, M Otero, V Carreno – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this work was to study the presence of the hepatitis GB virus type C (HGBV‐C) in liver and serum samples of children with chronic viral hepatitis, the time course of changes in viral RNA, and the possible acquisition routes of infection. Frozen serum and liver samples from 58 children with chronic hepatitis B (n = 33) or C (n = 25) were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction. Twenty‐seven children had been included in different interferon trials.

M B Omary, N O Ku – 30 December 2003

G Kircheis, R Nilius, C Held, H Berndt, M Buchner, R Gortelmeyer, R Hendricks, B Kruger, B Kuklinski, H Meister, H Otto, C Rink, W Rosch, S Stauch – 30 December 2003 – One hundred twenty‐six patients with cirrhosis, hyperammonemia (>50 μmol/L), and chronic (persistent) hepatic encephalopathy (HE), which developed spontaneously without the existence of known precipitating factors, were enrolled in a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical trial of intravenously administered L‐ ornithine‐L‐aspartate (OA).

D N Jaue, Z Ma, S S Lee – 30 December 2003 – The pathogenesis of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy remains unclear. Because ventricular contractility is dependent on the interplay of stimulatory β‐adrenergic and inhibitory muscarinic receptors, we aimed to examine a possible role of muscarinic M2 receptor overactivity in a rat model of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy. Cirrhosis was induced by bile duct ligation (BDL), while controls underwent sham operations.

A Benedetti, D Alvaro, C Bassotti, A Gigliozzi, G Ferretti, T La Rosa, A Di Sario, L Baiocchi, A M Jezequel – 30 December 2003 – We evaluated cytotoxic effects of different unconjugated and glycine‐ and taurine‐conjugated bile salts (BS) against bile duct epithelial cells in isolated bile ductule fragments and isolated perfused rat liver.

M Kondo, Y Horie, J Okano, A Kitamura, N Maeda, H Kawasaki, S Mishiro, S Yamamoto, T Itou, S Saeki, S Tanaka, H Okamoto – 30 December 2003

T Adachi, S Nakashima, S Saji, T Nakamura, Y Nozawa – 30 December 2003 – Treatment of primary cultured rat hepatocytes with hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gives rise to inositol phosphate formation, cytosolic calcium oscillation, activation of mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase and phospholipase D (PLD), and arachidonic acid release, leading to DNA synthesis.