Herbert L. Bonkovsky, J. Michael Woolley – 30 December 2003 – The natural history, prognosis, and clinical significance of chronic hepatitis C are highly variable and somewhat controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of chronic hepatitis C infection on patients' perceptions of health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) and to evaluate whether treatment with interferon improves HRQOL.

Wulf Otto Böcher, Sabine Herzog‐Hauff, Jörg Schlaak, Karl‐Hermann Meyer zum Büschenfelde, Hanns Friedrich Löhr – 30 December 2003 – Because cellular and humoral immune responses against the hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBs) might be crucial to overcome HBV infection, HBs‐specific B‐ and T‐cell responses of HBV patients and HBs vaccine recipients were analyzed quantitatively and functionally.

Stephan Vom Dahl, Johannes Georg Bode, Roland Michael Reinehr, Irmhild Mönnighoff, Ralf Kubitz, Dieter Häussinger – 30 December 2003 – The effects of perivascular nerve stimulation and phenylephrine on osmolyte release were studied in the intact perfused rat liver and isolated liver parenchymal cells (PC) and nonparenchymal cells.

30 December 2003

Zejin Liu, Toshiki Sakamoto, Tsukasa Ezure, Shigeki Yokomuro, Noriko Murase, George Michalopoulos, Anthony J. Demetris – 30 December 2003 – The interleukin‐6 (IL‐6)/gp‐80 and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/met ligand/receptor systems have been shown to stimulate biliary epithelial cell (BEC) DNA synthesis in vitro. The mRNA and protein production of these two in vitro mitogens were mapped in vivo during the first week after bile duct ligation (BDL) when peak BEC DNA synthesis is seen.

Eric M. Webber, Jordi Bruix, Robert H. Pierce, Nelson Fausto – 30 December 2003 – Signaling through tumor necrosis factor receptor type 1 (TNFR‐1) using a pathway that involves nuclear factor κB (NF‐κB), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and STAT3 is required for the initiation of liver regeneration. We have proposed that TNF primes hepatocytes to respond to the mitogenic effect of growth factors, but so far, there has been no experimental demonstration that TNF enhances growth factor responses of hepatocytes.

David V. Sangar, A. R. Carroll – 30 December 2003

Enrique Lara‐Pezzi, Pedro L. Majano, Marta Gómez‐Gonzalo, Carmelo García‐Monzón, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero, Massimo Levrero, Manuel López‐Cabrera – 30 December 2003 – Human hepatocytes infected by hepatitis B virus (HBV) produce the proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α). In this study, we explored the mechanism of induction of TNF‐α synthesis by HBV. We found that the stable HBV‐transfected hepatoma cell line, 2.2.15, expressed high‐molecular‐weight (HMW) TNF‐α mRNAs, which were absent in the parent HepG2 cells.

Judy A. Lawson, Michael A. Fisher, Carol A. Simmons, Anwar Farhood, Hartmut Jaeschke – 30 December 2003 – Endotoxin (ET) induces neutrophil sequestration in hepatic sinusoids, the activation of proinflammatory transcription factors (nuclear factor κB [NF‐κB]) with up‐regulation of adhesion molecules on sinusoidal endothelial cells and hepatocytes. However, if galactosamine (Gal) is co‐administered with ET, neutrophils transmigrate and attack parenchymal cells. This suggests that a signal from parenchymal cells triggers neutrophil transmigration.

Qi‐Wei Xu, R. Brent Scott, Daimen T. M. Tan, Eldon A. Shaffer – 30 December 2003 – Impaired gallbladder motility and delayed intestinal transit contribute to cholesterol gallstone formation by impeding the enterohepatic circulation of bile salts and causing gallbladder stasis. The therapeutic value of erythromycin, a prokinetic motilin analog, was evaluated in an animal model of gallstone formation. Eighty ground squirrels were fed either a trace‐ (control) or a high‐ (1%) cholesterol diet.