Saverio Stranges, Joan M. Dorn, Paola Muti, Jo L. Freudenheim, Eduardo Farinaro, Marcia Russell, Thomas H. Nochajski, Maurizio Trevisan – 27 February 2004 – Regional body fat distribution may represent an independent risk factor for several conditions, especially metabolic and cardiovascular diseases; recent findings have shown that abdominal fat accumulation can be an independent predictor of hepatic steatosis.

Yuichiro Hisatomi, Kenji Okumura, Kimitoshi Nakamura, Shirou Matsumoto, Ayumi Satoh, Koji Nagano, Tetsuro Yamamoto, Fumio Endo – 27 February 2004 – Experimental injury is useful to induce tissue stem cells, which may exist in small numbers under normal conditions. The salivary glands originate from the endoderm and consist of acinar and ductal epithelial cells, which have exocrine function. After salivary gland duct ligation, acinar cells disappear as a result of apoptosis, and duct epithelium subsequently proliferates.

Kurt Lenz, Christine Kapral, Alfons Gegenhuber, Robert Buder, Fritz Wewalka – 27 February 2004

Elwyn Elias – 27 February 2004

Ming‐Chih Hou, Han‐Chieh Lin, Tsu‐Te Liu, Benjamin Ing‐Tieu Kuo, Fa‐Yauh Lee, Full‐Young Chang, Shou‐Dong Lee – 27 February 2004 – Bacterial infection may adversely affect the hemostasis of patients with gastroesophageal variceal bleeding (GEVB). Antibiotic prophylaxis can prevent bacterial infection in such patients, but its role in preventing rebleeding is unclear. Over a 25‐month period, patients with acute GEVB but without evidence of bacterial infection were randomized to receive prophylactic antibiotics (ofloxacin 200 mg i.v.

Keith D. Lindor, Kris V. Kowdley, E. Jenny Heathcote, M. Edwyn Harrison, Roberta Jorgensen, Paul Angulo, James F. Lymp, Lawrence Burgart, Patrick Colin – 27 February 2004 – No effective medical therapy is available for all patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been suggested to be of benefit based on open label clinical studies. We randomized 166 patients with liver biopsy–proven NASH to receive between 13 and 15 mg/kg/d of UDCA or placebo for 2 years. End points included changes in liver test results and liver histology at 2 years of therapy.

Giovanna Vona, Laurence Estepa, Christophe Béroud, Diane Damotte, Frédérique Capron, Bertrand Nalpas, Alexandra Mineur, Dominique Franco, Bernard Lacour, Stanislas Pol, Christian Bréchot, Patrizia Paterlini‐Bréchot – 27 February 2004 – The clinical impact of circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection is controversial, mainly due to drawbacks of molecular approaches applied to this field. We sought to determine if the specific identification and counting of circulating tumor cells by cytomorphologic analysis has clinical usefulness.

M. Deschênes, Pierre Laneuville – 27 February 2004

Michael Kann – 27 February 2004

Henning Schulze‐Bergkamen, Dirk Brenner, Andreas Krueger, Dorothee Suess, Stefanie C. Fas, Christian R. Frey, Andreas Dax, Dorothea Zink, Peter Büchler, Martina Müller, Peter H. Krammer – 27 February 2004 – CD95 (APO‐1/Fas)‐mediated apoptosis of hepatocytes plays a central role in the pathophysiology of various human liver diseases. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was shown to exert antiapoptotic functions in rodent hepatocytes. We previously showed that primary human hepatocytes (PHH) are a valuable tool for the investigation of apoptotic processes in liver cells.