Fabienne Pessione, Marie‐José Ramond, Corinne Njapoum, Véronique Duchatelle, Claude Degott, Serge Erlinger, Bernard Rueff, Dominique‐Charles Valla, Françoise Degos – 30 December 2003 – A possible hepatotoxicity of cigarette smoke has been recently suggested by epidemiological and experimental studies. Our aim was to study the possible relationships between smoking and liver fibrosis and activity in patients with chronic hepatitis C. A cross‐sectional study was performed in a group of 310 patients with chronic hepatitis C consecutively hospitalized for their first liver biopsy.

Kyle Soltys, George Dikdan, Baburao Koneru – 30 December 2003 – Fatty livers in humans and rats are less tolerant of ischemia, endotoxin, and alcohol. We hypothesized that fatty livers of obese (Ob) Zucker rats are oxidatively stressed and oxidative stress could be relieved by antioxidant treatment, leading to improved tolerance to ischemia.

Judith A. Hahn, Kimberly Page‐Shafer, Paula J. Lum, Kristen Ochoa, Andrew R. Moss – 30 December 2003 – Young injection drug users (IDUs) in San Francisco may be at high risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection despite access to several needle exchange venues. The authors conducted a cross‐sectional study from 1997 to 1999 in San Francisco to estimate the prevalence and incidence of antibody to HCV (anti‐HCV) among street‐recruited IDUs under age 30, and to examine risk behaviors and sources of sterile needles. Among 308 participants, the prevalence of anti‐HCV was 45%.

Marco Bertolotti, Lucia Carulli, Mauro Concari, Pietro Martella, Paola Loria, Enrico Tagliafico, Sergio Ferrari, Marina Del Puppo, Barbara Amati, Emma De Fabiani, Maurizio Crestani, Claudio Amorotti, Antonio Manenti, Francesca Carubbi, Adriano Pinetti, Nicola Carulli – 30 December 2003 – Regulation of bile acid synthesis, a key determinant of cholesterol homeostasis, is still incompletely understood. To elucidate the feedback control exerted on bile acid biosynthesis in humans with obstructive cholestasis, 16 patients with bile duct obstruction were studied.

Chuhan Chung, Jeanne Gottstein, Andres T. Blei – 30 December 2003 – Patients with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) die with brain edema, exhibiting an increased cerebral blood flow (CBF) at the time of cerebral swelling. Mild hypothermia prevents brain edema in experimental models and in humans with FHF, an effect associated with normalization of CBF. To study the effects of alterations of CBF on the development of brain edema, we administered intravenous (IV) indomethacin to rats receiving an ammonia infusion after portacaval anastomosis.

Lorea Mendoza, Teresa Carrascal, Marco De Luca, Angela M. Fuentes, Clarisa Salado, Jerónimo Blanco, Fernando Vidal‐Vanaclocha – 30 December 2003 – The mechanism of intrasinusoidal arrest of circulating cancer cells, which is a critical step in liver metastasis, appears to be facilitated by tumor‐derived proinflammatory factors that increase sinusoidal cell adhesion receptors for cancer cells. However, how this prometastatic microenvironment is up‐regulated remains unknown.

Tim U. Krohne, Srinivas Shankara, Michael Geissler, Bruce L. Roberts, Jack R. Wands, Hubert E. Blum, Leonhard Mohr – 30 December 2003 – For gene therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP)/fludarabine suicide gene system may be more useful than the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (HSV‐tk/GCV) system as a result of a stronger bystander effect.

Rafik M.

Russell H. Wiesner, Ruud A.F. Krom – 30 December 2003

Sue V. McDiarmid – 30 December 2003