Cosme Manzarbeitia, David J. Reich, Jorge A. Ortiz, Kenneth D. Rothstein, Victor R. Araya, Santiago J. Munoz – 30 December 2003 – Thirty‐five patients received liver transplants using liver donors who had positive test results for the hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb). In the same time frame, 195 patients received HBcAb‐negative liver donors. Mean follow up for patients receiving HBcAb‐positive donors was 25 months. All patients receiving HBcAb‐positive donors were monitored for recurrence of hepatitis B (HBV) with HBV DNA assays.

Sanjiv Saigal, Suzanne Norris, Paolo Muiesan, Mohamed Rela, Nigel Heaton, John O'Grady – 30 December 2003 – Organ transplant recipients are considered to be at greater risk for developing malignancy because of the prolonged immunosuppression associated with organ grafting. The purpose of this study is to determine risk factors, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of de novo nonlymphoid malignancies after liver transplantation from a large single‐center series.

Cynthia R. Gross – 30 December 2003

Steve J. Cheng, Richard B. Freeman, John B. Wong – 30 December 2003 – Allocation of cadaveric livers to patients based on such objective medical urgency data as the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score may not benefit patients with small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). To ensure that these patients have a fair opportunity of receiving a cadaveric organ, the risk for death caused by HCC and tumor progression beyond 5 cm should be considered.

Ahmad A. AlDosary, Alnoor S. Ramji, Thomas G. Elliott, Sandra M. Sirrs, David M. Thompson, Siegfried R. Erb, Urs P. Steinbrecher, Eric M. Yoshida – 30 December 2003 – A retrospective study was performed on all liver transplant recipients from British Columbia from 1989 to March 2000 to determine the prevalence and predictive factors of diabetes mellitus (DM) post‐liver transplantation. DM was defined as hyperglycemia requiring treatment with insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents.

Ronald W. Busuttil – 30 December 2003

Amany Zekry, G. Alex Bishop, David G. Bowen, Margaret M. Gleeson, Seven Guney, Dorothy M. Painter, Geoffrey W. McCaughan – 30 December 2003 – Recurrent chronic hepatitis, cholestatic hepatitis, and acute rejection in conjunction with hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence are well‐recognized clinical sequelae of reinfection of the hepatic allograft with HCV. The aim of this study is to characterize intrahepatic cytokine responses associated with reinfection of the allograft with HCV in these settings.

Yutaka Yata, Andrew Scanga, Andrea Gillan, Liu Yang, Shimon Reif, Michael Breindl, David A. Brenner, Richard A. Rippe – 30 December 2003 – Liver fibrosis is characterized by a dramatic increase in the expression of type I collagen. Several deoxyribonuclease (DNase) I–hypersensitive sites (HS) have been located in the distal 5′‐flanking region of the α1(I) collagen gene that are specific to collagen‐producing cells.

Zhiping Li, Shiqi Yang, Huizhi Lin, Jiawen Huang, Paul A. Watkins, Ann B. Moser, Claudio DeSimone, Xiao‐yu Song, Anna Mae Diehl – 30 December 2003 – Ob/ob mice, a model for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), develop intestinal bacterial overgrowth and overexpress tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α). In animal models for alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD), decontaminating the intestine or inhibiting TNF‐α improves AFLD.

Davide Trerè, Mauro Borzio, Alberto Morabito, Franco Borzio, Massimo Roncalli, Massimo Derenzini – 30 December 2003 – Patients with cirrhosis are at significant risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between the percentage of hepatocytes showing nucleolar hypertrophy and the development of HCC in cirrhosis of different causes. A total of 111 cirrhotic patients were studied, with a mean follow‐up period of 83.3 months.