O Yasui, N Miura, K Terada, Y Kawarada, K Koyama, T Sugiyama – 30 December 2003 – Oval cells function as compensatory cells in severe liver injury and are thought to be equivalent to liver stem/progenitor cells. We isolated oval cells from the liver of Long‐Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rats by isopyknic centrifugation in a Percoll gradient. The cells were gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP)‐positive, alpha‐fetoprotein‐positive, and cytokeratin (CK) 18‐ and CK 19‐positive, but albumin‐negative in the cells. When oval cells were transplanted to the liver, they were transformed into hepatocytes.

W A Marsman, R H Wiesner, K P Batts, J J Poterucha, M K Porayko, H G Niesters, P E Zondervan, R A Krom – 30 December 2003 – Liver transplantation for hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐related liver disease is complicated by HBV recurrence and, consequently, poor patient and graft survival. Patients transplanted for hepatitis delta virus (HDV)‐ related cirrhosis are reported to have a diminished incidence of HBV recurrence and improved graft survival. However, only a few reported HDV‐infected patients had active HBV replicative disease before liver transplantation.

O Bruña‐Romero, J J Lasarte, G Wilkinson, K Grace, B Clarke, F Borrás‐Cuesta, J Prieto – 30 December 2003 – A replication‐defective recombinant adenovirus (RAd), RAdCMV‐CE1, containing core and E1 genes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was constructed. RAdCMV‐CE1 was able to express core and E1 proteins both in mice and human cells. Immunization of BALB/c mice with RAdCMV‐CE1 induced a specific cytotoxic T‐cell response against the two HCV proteins.

30 December 2003

H L Bonkovsky, B F Banner, A L Rothman – 30 December 2003

N Zhang, K Siegel, M Odenthal, R Becker, F Oesch, H P Dienes, P Schirmacher, P Steinberg – 30 December 2003 – Oval cells are small nonparenchymal epithelial cells that first appear in the periportal areas of the liver and thereafter invade the whole parenchyma when mice or rats are exposed to a variety of chemical carcinogens.

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.