Toshihiro Mitaka, Fumihiko Sato, Toru Mizuguchi, Takeshi Yokono, Yohichi Mochizuki – 30 December 2003 – Hepatic cells isolated from an adult rat liver, consisting of small hepatocytes (SHs), mature hepatocytes (MHs), liver epithelial cells (LECs), Kupffer cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells, and stellate cells, were cultured in a medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 10 mmol/L nicotinamide, 1 mmol/L ascorbic acid 2‐phosphate, 10 ng/mL epidermal growth factor, and 1% dimethyl sulfoxide. The SHs rapidly proliferated and formed a colony.

Najet Mejdoubi, Cécile Henriques, Elisabeth Bui, Geneviève Durand, Bernard Lardeux, Dominique Porquet – 30 December 2003 – The gene encoding α‐1‐acid glycoprotein (AGP), one of the major acute‐phase proteins, is positively controlled at the transcriptional level by cytokines (interleukin‐1 [IL‐1], IL‐6, and tumor necrosis factor α) and glucocorticoids. Here, we show that growth hormone (GH) treatment of isolated rat hepatocytes in vitro reduces AGP messenger RNA (mRNA) expression. AGP gene expression remained inducible by IL‐1, IL‐6, and phenobarbital (PB) in GH‐treated hepatocytes.

Yun Fan Liaw, Yi‐Cheng Chen, I‐Shyan Sheen – 30 December 2003

Masahiro Arakawa, Yoshio Kimura, Kenji Sakata, Yasuhiko Kubo, Takashi Fukushima, Kunio Okuda – 30 December 2003 – Two patients with ectopic liver are described. In one patient, a small ectopic liver attached to the gastric serosa developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The preoperative diagnosis was an α‐fetoprotein (AFP)‐producing carcinoma and a malignant ulcer of the stomach. Total gastrectomy and esophago‐jejunostomy were performed. The tumor that measured 4 × 2 × 2 cm contained an AFP‐producing HCC and normal liver tissue.

Sabina Janciauskiene, Stefan Lindgren – 30 December 2003 – Amyloid fibrils of diverse origin are known to disturb vital cellular functions and induce cell death. In this study, the effects of amyloid fibrils from the C‐terminal fragment (C‐36) of cleaved α1 ‐antitrypsin (AAT) on low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) metabolism were investigated in HepG2 cells. Treatment of the cells with C‐36 fibrils (10 μmol/L) enhanced 125I‐LDL binding and uptake 10 to 15 times, and highly up‐regulated levels of LDL receptor mRNA, as compared with control cells.

Raymond J. Lenhoff, Carolyn A. Luscombe, Jesse Summers – 30 December 2003 – A variant avian hepadnavirus that has been shown to destroy hepatocytes in vitro was found to be cytopathic in vivo. A single amino acid change of glycine to glutamic acid at position 133 (G133E) in the preS protein of duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) caused an increase in the intranuclear pool of viral covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), resulting in a transient elevation of viral replication and eventual hepatocyte destruction.

Bonnie L. Burgess‐Beusse, Nikolai A. Timchenko, Gretchen J. Darlington – 30 December 2003 – Both CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) and C/EBPβ are intronless, yet can create various N‐terminally truncated protein products with distinct DNA binding and transactivation potentials. These proteins can be generated via two distinct mechanisms, one translational and the other post‐translational.

Mitugi Yasuda, Ichiro Shimizu, Masako Shiba, Susumu Ito – 30 December 2003 – As a model for the analysis of the fibrosuppressive role of estradiol, hepatic fibrosis was induced in male and female rats by the administration of a single dose of dimethylnitrosamine (DMN). The fibrotic response of the male liver after DMN treatment was significantly stronger than that of the female liver.

Shi‐Ming Lin, I‐Shyan Sheen, Rong‐Nan Chien, Chia‐Ming Chu, Yun‐Fan Liaw – 30 December 2003 – To examine the long‐term effect of interferon (IFN) therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, particularly on survival and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prevention, 101 male patients with chronic hepatitis B in a randomized controlled trial were followed up for 1.1 to 11.5 years after the end of therapy.

Maria Teresa Bardella, Maurizio Vecchi, Dario Conte, Ersilio Del Ninno, Mirella Fraquelli, Stefania Pacchetti, Eliseo Minola, Marina Landoni, Bruno Mario Cesana, Roberto De Franchis – 30 December 2003 – In a subset of patients attending liver units, a chronic increase in serum transaminases may remain of undetermined cause despite thorough investigations. On the other hand, elevated levels of serum transaminases have been reported in about 40% of adult celiac patients.