Yoshiya Tahashi, Koichi Matsuzaki, Masataka Date, Katsunori Yoshida, Fukiko Furukawa, Yasushi Sugano, Masanori Matsushita, Yasuo Himeno, Yutaka Inagaki, Kyoichi Inoue – 30 December 2003 – During chronic liver injury, transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β) plays a prominent role in stimulating liver fibrogenesis by myofibroblast‐like cells derived from hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). On the other hand, Smad 7 was recently shown to antagonize the TGF‐β–induced activation of signal‐transducing Smads (2 and 3).

Javier Crespo, Amalía Cayón, Pedro Fernández‐Gil, Manuel Hernández‐Guerra, Marta Mayorga, Agustín Domínguez‐Díez, José Carlos Fernández‐Escalante, Fernando Pons‐Romero – 30 December 2003 – The main objective of this study was to analyze the pathogenic role of the tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) system in the development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Fifty‐two obese patients were studied.

Anna S. F. Lok, Brian J. McMahon – 30 December 2003

Diana M. Toivola, Mikko I. Nieminen, Michael Hesse, Tao He, Hélène Baribault, Thomas M. Magin, M. Bishr Omary, John E. Eriksson – 30 December 2003 – Simple epithelial tissues such as liver and pancreas express keratins 8 (K8) and 18 (K18) as their major intermediate filament proteins. K8 and K1 null mice and transgenic mice that express mutant K18 (K18C) manifest several hepatocyte abnormalities and demonstrate that K8/18 are important in maintaining liver tissue and cell integrity, although other potential functions remain uncharacterized.

Carmen Peralta, Ramón Bartrons, Anna Serafin, Cristina Blázquez, Manuel Guzmán, Neus Prats, Carme Xaus, Blanca Cutillas, Emilio Gelpí, Joan Roselló‐Catafau – 30 December 2003 – Hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion (I/R) injury associated with liver transplantation and hepatic resections are an unresolved problem in the clinical practice. Preconditioning is known to preserve energy metabolism in liver during sustained ischemia, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this effect are still unclear.

Patricia Boya, Esther Larrea, Iosu Sola, Pedro‐Lorenzo Majano, Carlos Jiménez, María‐Pilar Civeira, Jesús Prieto – 30 December 2003 – The mechanisms of liver damage in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are poorly understood. The transcription factor, nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB), regulates the expression of genes involved in apoptosis, inflammation, and antiviral response. It plays a protective role in several forms of liver damage.

Satheesh Nair, Robert P. Perrillo – 30 December 2003 – During interferon treatment of chronic hepatitis B, an alanine aminotransferase (ALT) flare may herald a sustained loss of viral replication, but the relationship between virologic response, the extent of a flare, and pretreatment hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA level has not been defined. We retrospectively examined the impact of an ALT flare on sustained virologic response in 121 interferon‐treated patients and 42 untreated controls with either low‐level (<100 pg/mL) or high‐level (≥100 pg/mL) viremia.

Michelle Martinot‐Peignoux, Nathalie Boyer, Dominique Cazals‐Hatem, Bach‐Nga Pham, Anne Gervais, Véronique Le Breton, Stéphane Levy, Claude Degott, Dominique‐Charles Valla, Patrick Marcellin – 30 December 2003 – A significant proportion of patients with detectable antibodies to hepatitis C virus have normal serum alanine transaminase levels. Our aim was to study the outcome of this group.

James Thielke, Jill Martin, Fredrick L. Weber, Timothy J. Schroeder, Sharon Goretsky, Douglas W. Hanto – 30 December 2003

Nancy L. Ascher, – 30 December 2003 – Background: Animals reconstituted with allogeneic whole bone marrow (WBM) are often tolerant of donor‐specific solid organ grafts. Clinical application of bone marrow transplantation in solid organ transplantation has been limited, however, principally by graft‐versus‐host disease. We previously demonstrated that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reconstitute lethally irradiated allogeneic mice without producing graft‐versus‐host disease.