I Okazaki, N Wada, M Nakano, A Saito, K Takasaki, M Doi, K Kameyama, Y Otani, K Kubochi, M Niioka, T Watanabe, K Maruyama – 30 December 2003 – The histological observation that well‐differentiated cancer cells in early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) invade portal tracts and/or fibrous bands and that these fibrous tissues then disappear suggests the participation of matrix metalloproteinase‐1 (MMP‐1) in the degradation of fibrous tissue.

R Pagan, I Martin, M Llobera, S Vilaro – 30 December 2003 – Neonatal rat hepatocytes cultured in the absence of added growth factors dedifferentiate by epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT). This involves the loss of their typical differentiation markers, the acquisition of a migrating morphology, and a change in the expression of the intermediate filament (IF) proteins.

M Ohtsuka, M Miyazaki, Y Kondo, N Nakajima – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study was to assess the hypothesis that hepatic failure after extensive hepatectomy in patients with obstructive jaundice (OJ) may be mediated by polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). In the OJ group, rats underwent a partial hepatectomy of 78% after 2 weeks of cholestasis and subsequent external biliary drainage for 5 days. In the sham‐operated control group, rats were partially hepatectomized 19 days after the sham surgery.

A De Santis, A F Attili, S G Corradini, E Scafato, A Cantagalli, C De Luca, G Pinto, D Lisi, L Capocaccia – 30 December 2003 – Data on the association between cholelithiasis and diabetes often are controversial and are mostly based on autopsies or on hospital series.

S D Turley, D K Spady, J M Dietschy – 30 December 2003 – The objective of these studies was to investigate the comparative physiology and regulation of bile acid metabolism in the male Golden Syrian hamster by measuring the rate of fecal bile acid excretion and bile acid pool size in animals fed a cereal‐based diet either alone, or with added cholesterol or cholestyramine. In group‐housed hamsters fed only the plain diet fecal bile acid excretion in animals at 6, 10, and 15 weeks of age averaged 11.0, 8.0, and 6.9 μmol/d per 100 g body weight (bw), respectively.

C Elsing, C Hubner, B A Fitscher, A Kassner, W Stremmel – 30 December 2003 – The aim was to explore whether biliary epithelial cells show muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and to investigate their role in ductular bile formation. In both, isolated rat biliary epithelial cells and Mz‐Cha‐1 cells, a biliary epithelial cell line, binding of [3H]N‐methyl‐scopolamine occurred with 0.718 ± 0.08 and 0.482 ± 0.05 fmol per 10(6) cells, respectively. To characterize the involved second messenger, intracellular Ca2+ levels were monitored by confocal microscopy.

T Ueki, J Fujimoto, T Suzuki, H Yamamoto, E Okamoto – 30 December 2003 – The c‐met proto‐oncogene encodes the tyrosine kinase receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a potent mitogen and motogen for epithelial cells. Because of its profound effects on cell growth and motility, HGF may be important in the development of cancer metastases in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

P Liu, O Terradillos, C A Renard, G Feldmann, M A Buendia, D Bernuau – 30 December 2003 – Transgenic mice carrying the c‐myc oncogene under control of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA sequences invariably develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), despite a temporally limited expression of the transgene in the neonatal liver. To better characterize the different steps of the tumorigenic process, we analyzed the liver expression of the c‐myc transgene and several growth‐related genes by in situ hybridization and Northern blotting.

C Muller, D Petermann, F Pfeffel, C Oesterreicher, R Fugger – 30 December 2003 – The aim of the study was to assess the specificity of albumin‐messenger RNA (mRNA)‐positive cells in peripheral blood as an indicator for circulating malignant hepatocytes. Albumin‐mRNA–positive cells in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PMNC) fraction were detected by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR).

T Grøfte, T Wolthers, S A Jensen, N Møller, J O Jørgensen, N Tygstrup, H Ørskov, H Vilstrup – 30 December 2003 – Improvement of nitrogen balance is desirable in patients with acute or chronic illness. Both growth hormone (GH) and insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) are promising anabolic agents, and their combined administration has been shown to reverse catabolism more efficiently than each of the peptides alone.