Darius Moradpour, Petra Kary, Charles M. Rice, Hubert E. Blum – 30 December 2003 – Investigation of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) life cycle and the evaluation of novel antiviral strategies are limited by the lack of an efficient cell culture system. Therefore, continuous human cell lines inducibly expressing the entire HCV open reading frame were generated with use of a tetracycline‐regulated gene expression system. HCV transgenes were found to be chromosomally integrated in a head‐to‐tail configuration.

Albert J. Czaja – 30 December 2003 – To determine the frequency and nature of variant syndromes in autoimmune liver disease, 162 patients with type 1 autoimmune hepatitis, 37 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, and 26 patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis were assessed in a uniform fashion, and the strength of the original diagnosis was evaluated by use of a scoring system. Variant forms, including syndromes with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis (7%) or primary sclerosing cholangitis (6%) and autoimmune cholangitis (11%), were common in the 225 patients (18%).

Hans Ludger Tillmann, Stefan Heringlake, Christian Trautwein, Doerte Meissner, Bjoern Nashan, Hans‐Juergen Schlitt, Jon Kratochvil, Jeffrey Hunt, Xiaoxing Qiu, Sheng Chang Lou, Rudolf Pichlmayr, Michael Peter Manns – 30 December 2003 – GB virus C (GBV‐C) is a newly discovered RNA virus related to the Flaviviridae family. Although GBV‐C is not yet associated with any cause of liver disease, a humoral immune response against the GBV‐C envelope 2 (E2) protein has been observed.

Ryuta Terao, Kazuo Honda, Etsuro Hatano, Tetsuya Uehara, Masayuki Yamamoto, Yoshio Yamaoka – 30 December 2003 – Proliferative cholangitis (PC) associated with hepatolithiasis develops the stricture of main bile ducts, and is the main cause of residual and/or recurrent stones after repeated treatments for hepatolithiasis. The aim of this study was to inhibit PC using the cytostatic gene therapy with direct adenovirus‐mediated retinoblastoma (Rb) gene transfer to the biliary tract. PC was induced by introducing a fine nylon thread into the bile duct in a rat model.

Koichi Tsuneyama, Mitsue Yasoshima, Kenichi Harada, Katsushi Hiramatsu, M. Eric Gershwin, Yasuni Nakanuma – 30 December 2003 – Cluster of differentiation 1 (CD1) is a family of four distinct nonpolymorphic major histocompatibility complex class I‐like molecules that can present microbial nonpeptide lipid antigens to T cells. Among the CD1 gene family, CD1d is found in a wide range of tissues including the intestine and liver, and has been proposed to play an important role in mucosal immunity.

Francisco J. Gallego‐Rojo, Jorge L. Gonzalez‐Calvin, Manuel Muñoz‐Torres, Jose L. Mundi, Ramon Fernandez‐Perez, Dolores Rodrigo‐Moreno – 30 December 2003 – Previous studies suggest that low bone mass is a complication of alcoholic liver disease. Nevertheless, little is known about bone mass and bone metabolism in viral cirrhosis.

Gretchen S. Crary, Jeffrey H. Albrecht – 30 December 2003 – The p21 protein is a universal inhibitor of cyclin‐dependent kinases and of cell‐cycle progression and is involved in numerous growth‐inhibitory pathways in cell culture systems. Recent studies suggest that p21 regulates hepatocyte cell cycle progression in models of liver regeneration. The present study was designed to investigate the possible involvement of p21 in the control of hepatocyte proliferation in human liver diseases.

Hal F. Yee – 30 December 2003 – Hepatic stellate cell activation, thought to play a key role in fibrosis of the liver, is characterized by changes in cellular morphology. The intracellular signals regulating morphological alterations associated with stellate cell activation are uncertain. The ras‐like guanosine triphosphate–binding protein, rho, has recently emerged as an important regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, and consequently cell morphology.

Hans Fromm – 30 December 2003

Jens O. Karlsson, Martin L. Yarmush, Mehmet Toner – 30 December 2003 – Two characteristic elements of the acute‐phase response are an altered pattern of circulating hepatic proteins and fever. Whereas a fever‐induced heat shock response could affect expression of acute‐phase proteins in the liver, the effects of a modest temperature increase on protein secretion in interleukin‐6 (IL‐6)–stimulated HepG2 cells were investigated. The response of HepG2 cells to IL‐6 stimulation was significantly affected by heat treatment at 40°C.