Robert P. Perrillo, Teresa Wright, Jorge Rakela, Gary Levy, Eugene Schiff, Robert Gish, Paul Martin, Jules Dienstag, Paul Adams, Rolland Dickson, Gaya Anschuetz, Steve Bell, Lynn Condreay, Nathaniel Brown, The Lamivudine North American Transplant Group – 30 December 2003 – Seventy‐seven liver transplant candidates were enrolled in a multicenter study in which patients were treated with lamivudine (100 mg daily) without the adjunctive use of hepatitis B immune globulin. Treatment was begun while patients awaited liver transplantation and continued after transplantation.

Peter R. Sinclair, Nadia Gorman, Heidi S. Walton, William J. Bement, Jacqueline F. Sinclair, Glenn S. Gerhard, Juliana G. Szakacs, Nancy C. Andrews, Joanne E. Levy – 30 December 2003 – Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT), a liver disease with skin lesions caused by excess liver production of uroporphyrin (URO), is associated with consumption of alcoholic beverages or estrogens, and moderate iron overload. Recently, it has been shown that many PCT patients carry mutations in the HFE gene, which is responsible for hereditary hemochromatosis.

Steve J. Cheng, Peter A. L. Bonis, Joseph Lau, Nhu Q. Pham, John B. Wong – 30 December 2003 – The efficacy of interferon (IFN) combined with ribavirin for the treatment of patients with hepatitis C who failed to respond to initial IFN therapy is not well established. The primary goal of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature evaluating the efficacy of combination therapy in nonresponders. Studies were retrieved from MEDLINE, abstracts of scientific meetings, and review of the bibliographies of retrieved studies.

Luis Felipe Barros, Andrés Stutzin, Andrea Calixto, Marcelo Catalán, Joel Castro, Claudio Hetz, Tamara Hermosilla – 30 December 2003 – Necrosis, as opposed to apoptosis, is recognized as a nonspecific cell death that induces tissue inflammation and is preceded by cell edema. In non‐neuronal cells, the latter has been explained by defective outward pumping of Na+ caused by metabolic depletion or by increased Na+ influx via membrane transporters.

Yun‐Fan Liaw, Sun‐Lung Tsai, Rong‐Nan Chien, Chau‐Ting Yeh, Chia‐Ming Chu – 30 December 2003 – Asian lamivudine trial has shown that hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion rate during 1 year of lamivudine therapy was only 16% but was 64% in the subgroup of patients with a pretherapy serum alanine transaminase (ALT) level over 5 times the upper limit of normal (ULN). To test whether ALT rebound following corticosteroid priming enhances response to lamivudine therapy, a pilot study was conducted in 30 patients with ALT levels less than 5× ULN (43‐169; N < 36 U/L).

Carl Albrecht Schirren, Maria‐Christina Jung, Joern Tilman Gerlach, Thomas Worzfeld, Gustavo Baretton, Maxim Mamin, Norbert Hubert Gruener, Michael Houghton, Gerd Rudolf Pape – 30 December 2003 – Virus‐specific CD4+ T‐cell response at the site of inflammation is believed to play a decisive role for the course of viral disease. In hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, the majority of studies focused on the peripheral blood T‐cell response. In this study we analyzed intrahepatic virus‐specific CD4+ T‐cell response and compared this with that in the peripheral blood.

Neil D. Theise, Manjunath Nimmakayalu, Rebekah Gardner, Peter B. Illei, Glyn Morgan, Lewis Teperman, Octavian Henegariu, Diane S. Krause – 30 December 2003 – It has been shown in animal models that hepatocytes and cholangiocytes can derive from bone marrow cells. We have investigated whether such a process occurs in humans. Archival autopsy and biopsy liver specimens were obtained from 2 female recipients of therapeutic bone marrow transplantations with male donors and from 4 male recipients of orthotopic liver transplantations from female donors.

Giuseppe Colucci – 30 December 2003

Karin Fattinger, Valentino Cattori, Bruno Hagenbuch, Peter J. Meier, Bruno Stieger – 30 December 2003 – The antibiotics, rifamycin SV and rifampicin, are known to interfere with hepatic bile salt and organic anion uptake. The aim of this study was to explore which transport systems are affected. In short‐term–cultured rat hepatocytes, low concentrations (10 μmol/L) of both compounds inhibited mainly sodium‐independent taurocholate uptake, whereas higher concentrations (100 μmol/L) also inhibited sodium‐dependent taurocholate uptake.

Juan Jos Arrieta, Elena Rodriguez‐Iñigo, Mercedes Casqueiro, Javier Bartolomé, Felix Manzarbeitia, Montserrat Herrero, Margarita Pardo, Vicente Carreño – 30 December 2003 – Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that there is a correlation between oral lichen planus and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV RNA has been recently detected in epithelial cells from oral lichen planus lesions by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR).