C Elsing, C Hubner, B A Fitscher, A Kassner, W Stremmel – 30 December 2003 – The aim was to explore whether biliary epithelial cells show muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and to investigate their role in ductular bile formation. In both, isolated rat biliary epithelial cells and Mz‐Cha‐1 cells, a biliary epithelial cell line, binding of [3H]N‐methyl‐scopolamine occurred with 0.718 ± 0.08 and 0.482 ± 0.05 fmol per 10(6) cells, respectively. To characterize the involved second messenger, intracellular Ca2+ levels were monitored by confocal microscopy.

T Ueki, J Fujimoto, T Suzuki, H Yamamoto, E Okamoto – 30 December 2003 – The c‐met proto‐oncogene encodes the tyrosine kinase receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a potent mitogen and motogen for epithelial cells. Because of its profound effects on cell growth and motility, HGF may be important in the development of cancer metastases in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

P Liu, O Terradillos, C A Renard, G Feldmann, M A Buendia, D Bernuau – 30 December 2003 – Transgenic mice carrying the c‐myc oncogene under control of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA sequences invariably develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), despite a temporally limited expression of the transgene in the neonatal liver. To better characterize the different steps of the tumorigenic process, we analyzed the liver expression of the c‐myc transgene and several growth‐related genes by in situ hybridization and Northern blotting.

C Muller, D Petermann, F Pfeffel, C Oesterreicher, R Fugger – 30 December 2003 – The aim of the study was to assess the specificity of albumin‐messenger RNA (mRNA)‐positive cells in peripheral blood as an indicator for circulating malignant hepatocytes. Albumin‐mRNA–positive cells in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PMNC) fraction were detected by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR).

T Grøfte, T Wolthers, S A Jensen, N Møller, J O Jørgensen, N Tygstrup, H Ørskov, H Vilstrup – 30 December 2003 – Improvement of nitrogen balance is desirable in patients with acute or chronic illness. Both growth hormone (GH) and insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) are promising anabolic agents, and their combined administration has been shown to reverse catabolism more efficiently than each of the peptides alone.

T Kawamura, A Furusaka, M J Koziel, R T Chung, T C Wang, E V Schmidt, T J Liang – 30 December 2003 – Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, the role of viral cytopathic effects remains unclear. To study the biosynthesis of HCV structural proteins and their pathogenic role, we constructed transgenic mice, expressing type 1b HCV structural proteins (core, E1, and E2) in liver tissues. Two liver‐specific promoters were used.

A Penna, G Del Prete, A Cavalli, A Bertoletti, M M D'Elios, R Sorrentino, M D'Amato, C Boni, M Pilli, F Fiaccadori, C Ferrari – 30 December 2003 – The cytokine pattern secreted by T cells on viral antigen recognition is believed to exert a profound influence on both the type of disease caused by the infecting agent and the final outcome of the viral infection.

M C Kew – 30 December 2003

30 December 2003

A Tagger, F Donato, M L Ribero, R Chiesa, V Tomasoni, G Portera, U Gelatti, A Albertini, M Fasola, G Nardi – 30 December 2003 – A new hepatitis‐associated RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family has been identified and named GB virus C/ hepatitis G virus (HGV). We carried out a case‐control study to evaluate the association of HGV infection with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We recruited 170 patients hospitalized for HCC (143 male and 27 female, mean age 64 years) and 306 patients hospitalized for nonliver diseases (controls) in Brescia, Italy.