Atsushi Suzuki, Midori Hayashida, Hirokazu Kawano, Kazushi Sugimoto, Takeshi Nakano, Katsuya Shiraki – 30 December 2003 – The Akt/PI‐3 kinase pathway is a system essential for cell survival. In the current study, we showed that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) activates the Akt/PI‐3 kinase pathway to suppress Fas‐mediated cell death in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; 3 lines; SK‐Hep1, HLE, and Chang Liver cell lines), hepatoblastoma (1 line; HepG2), and embryonic hepatocyte (1 line; WRL). Five tested cell lines showed the resistance to Fas‐mediated cell death by the pretreatment of HGF.

Stefan Zeuzem, Gerlinde Teuber, Uta Naumann, Thomas Berg, Jochen Raedle, Susanne Hartmann, Uwe Hopf – 30 December 2003 – Although the antiviral effects of amantadine sulphate (1‐aminoadamantan sulphate) have not been characterized for the hepatitis C virus (HCV), previous pilot studies have suggested promising results in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy, safety, and health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) alone or in combination with oral amantadine for treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

Yvonne Will, Kay A. Fischer, Robert A. Horton, Rhonda S. Kaetzel, Marda K. Brown, Olaf Hedstrom, Michael W. Lieberman, Donald J. Reed – 30 December 2003 – γ‐Glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT)‐deficient mice (GGT−/−) display chronic glutathione (GSH) deficiency, growth retardation, and die at a young age (<20 weeks). Using livers from these mice, we investigated the relationship between GSH content, especially mitochondrial, and mitochondrial and cellular function.

Yujin Hoshida, Yasushi Shiratori, Masao Omata – 30 December 2003

Philip Hilgard, Richard Stockert – 30 December 2003 – Dengue viruses (DEN) cause a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations including potentially life‐threatening conditions such as hemorrhagic shock syndrome and less frequently acute hepatitis with liver failure and encephalopathy. In addition, dengue viruses provide a potential model to understand the initiation of hepatocyte infection by the structurally closely related hepatitis C virus (HCV), because this virus at present cannot be grown in cell culture.

Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky – 30 December 2003

Atsushi Tanaka, Gregory Nalbandian, Patrick S.C. Leung, Gordon D. Benson, Santiago Munoz, Jorge A. Findor, Andrea D. Branch, Ross L. Coppel, Aftab A. Ansari, M. Eric Gershwin – 30 December 2003 – We have shown that IgA‐class antimitochondrial autoantibodies (AMA) can be detected in the bile and saliva of patients with PBC, suggesting that AMA are secreted into the luminal fluid across bile ducts and salivary glands. These data prompted us to determine whether AMA of the IgA isotype may be transported across other epithelial mucosa.

George J.M. Webster, Stephanie Reignat, Mala K. Maini, Simon A. Whalley, Graham S. Ogg, Abigail King, David Brown, Peter L. Amlot, Roger Williams, Diego Vergani, Geoffrey M. Dusheiko, Antonio Bertoletti – 30 December 2003 – After hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, liver injury and viral control have been thought to result from lysis of infected hepatocytes by virus‐specific cytotoxic T cells. Patients are usually studied only after developing significant liver injury, and so the viral and immune events during the incubation phase of disease have not been defined.

Thierry Poynard, John McHutchison, Gary L. Davis, Rafael Esteban‐Mur, Zachary Goodman, Pierre Bedossa, Janice Albrecht – 30 December 2003 – The extent of liver fibrosis is an important prognostic factor in patients infected with hepatitis C virus. Administration of a combination of interferon and ribavirin produces a superior viral clearance response rate than interferon alone. The effect of this combination regimen on hepatic fibrosis has not been established.

Arun J. Sanyal – 30 December 2003