Stephan R. Vavricka, Jessica Van Montfoort, Huy Riem Ha, Peter J. Meier, Karin Fattinger – 30 December 2003 – The antibiotics rifamycin SV and rifampicin substantially reduce sulfobromophthalein (BSP) elimination in humans. In rats, rifamycin SV and rifampicin were shown to interfere with hepatic organic anion uptake by inhibition of the organic anion transporting polypeptides Oatp1 and Oatp2. Therefore, we investigated the effects of rifamycin SV and rifampicin on the OATPs of human liver and determined whether rifampicin is a substrate of 1 or several of these carriers.

Lorenza Tacchini, Daniela Fusar Poli, Aldo Bernelli‐Zazzera, Gaetano Cairo – 30 December 2003 – Iron‐catalyzed production of reactive oxygen species is a cause of liver injury after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). The aim of the present study was to address the regulation of transferrin receptor (TfR), which mediates cellular iron uptake, during I/R. The molecular mechanisms controlling TfR gene expression in vivo during I/R of rat liver were investigated by molecular biology procedures. We also analyzed transferrin‐bound iron uptake into surviving liver slices.

David G. Rickheim, Christopher J. Nelsen, John T. Fassett, Nikolai A. Timchenko, Linda K. Hansen, Jeffrey H. Albrecht – 30 December 2003 – Substantial evidence suggests that cyclin D1 plays a pivotal role in the control of the hepatocyte cell cycle in response to mitogenic stimuli, whereas the closely related protein cyclin D3 has not been extensively evaluated. In the current study, we examined the regulation of cyclins D1 and D3 during hepatocyte proliferation in vivo after 70% partial hepatectomy (PH) and in culture.

Hidenari Nagai, Katsuhiko Matsumaru, Guoping Feng, Neil Kaplowitz – 30 December 2003 – The effect of reduced glutathione (GSH) depletion by acetaminophen (APAP), diethylmaleate (DEM), or phorone on the mode of cell death and susceptibility to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐induced cell death was studied in cultured mouse hepatocytes. Dose‐dependent necrosis was the exclusive mode of cell death with APAP alone, but the addition of TNF‐α induced a switch to about half apoptosis without changing total loss of viability.

José Such, Rubén Francés, Carlos Muñoz, Pedro Zapater, Juan A. Casellas, Ana Cifuentes, Francisco Rodríguez‐Valera, Sonia Pascual, Javier Sola‐Vera, Fernando Carnicer, Francisco Uceda, José M. Palazón, Miguel Pérez‐Mateo – 30 December 2003 – The current pathogenic theory of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in patients with cirrhosis and ascites suggests that repeated episodes of bacterial translocation (BT) from intestinal lumen to mesenteric lymph nodes followed by systemic seeding are the key steps for the final development of infectious events.

J. Donald Ostrow, Lorella Pascolo, Claudio Tiribelli – 30 December 2003

Akihide Kamiya, Nobuhiko Kojima, Taisei Kinoshita, Yasuyuki Sakai, Atsushi Miyaijma – 30 December 2003 – Previously, we described that embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) mouse fetal hepatocytes differentiate to express tyrosine amino transferase (TAT) and glucose‐6‐phosphatase, which are expressed in the perinatal liver, in response to oncostatin M (OSM) or in high‐cell‐density culture. However, under such conditions, fetal hepatic cells failed to express genes for adult liver‐specific enzymes, such as tryptophan oxygenase (TO).

Ju‐Seog Lee, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 30 December 2003 – Global gene expression profiles in cancer have impacted both classification of tumors and definition of molecular pathways in neoplasia. To explore the possibility of employing human tumor cell lines to obtain information on the functional genomics of the early stages of tumorigenesis, we have characterized variation in gene‐expression patterns in a cytogenetically well‐defined series of cell lines derived from human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Microarrays containing 6,720 sequence‐verified human cDNAs were used in this study.

Liang Qiao, Adly Yacoub, Elaine Studer, Seema Gupta, Xin Yan Pei, Steven Grant, Philip B. Hylemon, Paul Dent – 30 December 2003 – The mechanisms by which bile acids induce apoptosis in hepatocytes and the signaling pathways involved in the control of cell death are not understood fully. Here, we examined the impact of mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidyl inositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) signaling on the survival of primary hepatocytes exposed to bile acids.

Michael Charlton, Raghavakaimal Sreekumar, Deborah Rasmussen, Keith Lindor, K. Sreekumaran Nair – 30 December 2003 – The pathophysiology of hepatic steatosis, a prerequisite of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, is poorly understood. Because very‐low–density lipoprotein (VLDL) formation is the chief route of hepatic lipid export, we hypothesized that the synthesis of apoB‐100, a rate‐determining step in hepatic VLDL formation, may be altered in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).