Yasuharu Imai, Hideo Tanaka, Masahiko Ohsawa – 30 December 2003

Michael B. Fallon – 30 December 2003

Giovanni Musso, Roberto Gambino, Franco De Michieli, Maurizio Cassader, Mario Rizzetto, Marilena Durazzo, Emanuela Fagà, Barbara Silli, Gianfranco Pagano – 30 December 2003 – The relations of dietary habits to insulin sensitivity and postprandial triglyceride metabolism were evaluated in 25 patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and 25 age‐, body mass index (BMI)‐, and gender‐matched healthy controls.

Philippe Roingeard – 30 December 2003

Martin Caselitz, Matthias J. Bahr, Jörg S. Bleck, Ajay Chavan, Michael P. Manns, Siegfried Wagner, Michael Gebel – 30 December 2003 – Hepatic involvement in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is highly variable and may lead to severe clinical symptoms such as heart failure. This controlled, prospective study defined sonographic criteria for hepatic involvement in HHT.

Eva Herrmann, Jung‐Hun Lee, George Marinos, Marlene Modi, Stefan Zeuzem – 30 December 2003 – A dynamic equilibrium between viral production and clearance characterizes untreated chronic hepatitis C viral infection. After initiating antiviral treatment, a typical multiphasic decay of viremia can be observed and analyzed using mathematical models.

Xiaofeng Fan, Dorothy M. Lang, Yanjuan Xu, Andre C. Lyra, Karina Yusim, James E. Everhart, Bette T. M. Korber, Alan S. Perelson, Adrian M. Di Bisceglie – 30 December 2003 – Superinfection of different viral strains within a single host provides an opportunity for studying host‐virus and virus‐virus interactions, including viral interference and genetic recombination, which cannot be studied in infections with single viral strains. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive single‐strand RNA virus that establishes persistent infection in as many as 85% of infected individuals.

Aparna Venkatraman, Sruti Shiva, Ashley J. Davis, Shannon M. Bailey, Paul S. Brookes, Victor M. Darley‐Usmar – 30 December 2003 – Chronic alcohol consumption is a well‐known risk factor for hepatic injury, and mitochondrial damage plays a significant role in this process. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important modulator of mitochondrial function and is known to inhibit mitochondrial respiration. However, the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on NO‐dependent control of liver mitochondrial function is unknown.

Joseph Locker, Jianmin Tian, Robert Carver, Danilo Concas, Costanza Cossu, Giovanna M. Ledda‐Columbano, Amedeo Columbano – 30 December 2003 – Partial hepatectomy (PH) and some tumor‐promoting agents stimulate hepatocyte cell proliferation, but each treatment acts through distinct transcription factors. We compared mouse immediate‐early gene expression changes after PH with those induced by 1,4‐bis[2‐(3,5‐dichoropyridyloxy)]benzene (TCPOBOP), a tumor‐promoting liver mitogen.

Annette Schmitt‐Gräff, Viktoria Ertelt, Hans‐P. Allgaier, Konrad Koelble, Manfred Olschewski, Roland Nitschke, Marie‐L. Bochaton‐Piallat, Giulio Gabbiani, Hubert E. Blum – 30 December 2003 – The cellular retinol‐binding protein‐1 (CRBP‐1) plays a key role in the esterification and intercellular transfer of retinol. By in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), we show that, in normal liver, CRBP‐1 is strongly expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and myofibroblasts (MFs) with only low CRBP‐1 levels in hepatocytes.