Koji Ishii, Yoshinobu Tanaka, Chan‐Choo Yap, Hideki Aizaki, Yoshiharu Matsuura, Tatsuo Miyamura – 30 December 2003 – The nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is considered to possess RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) activity and to play an essential role for the viral replication. In this study, we expressed the NS5B protein of 65 kd by a recombinant baculovirus. With the highly purified NS5B protein, we established anin vitrosystem for RdRp activity by using poly(A) as a template and a 15‐mer oligo(U) (oligo(U)15) as a primer.

Howard C. Thomas, M. E. Török, G. R. Foster – 30 December 2003

Mara Massimi, Steven R. Lear, David L. Williams, Albert L. Jones, Sandra K. Erickson – 30 December 2003 – Apolipoprotein (Apo) E plays a key role in the metabolism of lipoproteins. It also modulates immunoregulation, cell growth and differentiation and the response to nerve injury. The liver is a major site of ApoE synthesis. Most of the circulating ApoE is thought to be of hepatic origin with most synthesized in hepatocytes.

Clara Camaschella, Silvia Fargion, Maurizio Sampietro, Antonella Roetto, Sandra Bosio, Giovanni Garozzo, Cristina Arosio, Alberto Piperno – 30 December 2003 – Hemochromatosis (HH) is usually caused by the homozygous state for C282Y mutation in the HFE gene. A minority of iron loaded patients have no mutations in this gene. An infrequent subset shows an early‐onset aggressive disorder, denoted juvenile hemochromatosis (JH), which has no linkage to 6p.

Geoffrey M. Thiele, Jacqueline A. Miller, Lynell W. Klassen, Dean J. Tuma – 30 December 2003 – Receptor‐mediated endocytosis (RME) by a scavenger receptor on sinusoidal liver endothelial cells (LECs) for formaldehyde‐treated bovine serum albumin (f‐Alb) has previously been shown to be impaired following chronic ethanol consumption. These studies were initially performed by in situ perfusion, making it difficult to determine the point in the process at which RME is affected.

Akihiro Tamori, Shuhei Nishiguchi, Shoji Kubo, Noritoshi Koh, Yoshinori Moriyama, Shunsuke Fujimoto, Tadashi Takeda, Susumu Shiomi, Kazuhiro Hirohashi, Hiroaki Kinoshita, Shuzo Otani, Tetsuo Kuroki – 30 December 2003 – Serological research suggests that hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is unclear how genes of hepatitis viruses participate in hepatocarcinogenesis in patients infected with HCV.

Paul D. Berk, Decherd Stump – 30 December 2003

Philippe Podevin, Olivier Rosmorduc, Filomena Conti, Yvon Calmus, Peter J. Meier, Raoul Poupon – 30 December 2003 – We have previously shown that cholestasis and bile acids inhibit 2′,5′ oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) activity in the liver and in primary hepatocyte cultures. Here, we assessed the influence of bile acids on interferon (IFN) pathway activation in three hepatoma cell lines. In HepG2 cells, bile acids (100‐200 μmol/L) inhibited IFN‐induced 2′,5′ OAS activity to an extent depending on their surface activity index.

Dominique Roulot, Ann‐Marie Sevcsik, Thierry Coste, A. Donny Strosberg, Stefano Marullo – 30 December 2003 – Transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β) is an antiproliferative and profibrogenic cytokine that signals through a receptor consisting of type I and type II (TβRII) components. We have examined changes in the expression of TβRII during liver injury, correlating this with the antiproliferative and profibrogenic effects of TGF‐β1 .

Manuel Tsiang, James F. Rooney, John J. Toole, Craig S. Gibbs – 30 December 2003 – In a recent phase II clinical study, 13 chronic hepatitis B–infected patients treated daily with 30 mg adefovir dipivoxil for 12 weeks displayed a median 4.1‐log10 decrease in plasma hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐DNA levels. The decline of viral load during therapy displayed a biphasic kinetic profile that was modeled to determine the efficacy of inhibition of viral production, as well as kinetic constants for the clearance of free virus and the loss of infected cells.