Andrew Klein – 30 December 2003 – Tacrolimus is an effective immunosuppressant in the rescue of liver allograft patients in whom conventional immunosuppression failed. Efficacy and safety were examined in a multicenter trial of liver transplant recipients converted to tacrolimus because of rejection despite cyclosporine (CyA) therapy or intolerance to CyA. Six hundred seventy‐seven patients were enrolled onto the study; 475 patients for rejection, 197 patients for intolerance, and 5 patients treated compassionately.

Ariel E. Feldstein, Jean Perrault, Mounif El‐Youssif, Keith D. Lindor, Deborah K. Freese, Paul Angulo – 30 December 2003 – Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is increasingly diagnosed in children and adolescents, but its long‐term prognosis remains uncertain. The aim of this longitudinal, cohort study was to determine the long‐term outcome of children with PSC. Fifty‐two children with cholangiography‐proven PSC (34 boys and 18 girls; mean age 13.8 ± 4.2 years; range, 1.5‐19.6 years) who were seen at our institution over a 20‐year period were followed‐up for up to 16.7 years.

Ting Zhang, Yuan Li, Jian‐Ping Lai, Steven D. Douglas, David S. Metzger, Charles P. O'Brien, Wen‐Zhe Ho – 30 December 2003 – Alcohol consumption accelerates liver damage and diminishes the anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) effect of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) in patients with HCV infection. It is unknown, however, whether alcohol enhances HCV replication and promotes HCV disease progression. The availability of the HCV replicon containing hepatic cells has provided a unique opportunity to investigate the interaction between alcohol and HCV replicon expression.

Ruy M. Ribeiro, Jennifer Layden‐Almer, Kimberly A. Powers, Thomas J. Layden, Alan S. Perelson – 30 December 2003 – Studies of the kinetics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) decline during interferon (IFN)‐based therapy have led to insights into treatment efficacy. However, the kinetics of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), an enzyme used as a surrogate of liver damage, have not been closely monitored, and it is not known if they correlate with those of HCV RNA. Here we describe the associations between ALT and HCV dynamics.

Nicola Coppola, Giorgio de Stefano, Cecilia Marrocco, Ferdinando Scarano, Carlo Scolastico, Luciano Tarantino, Felice Piccinino, Antonio Giorgio, Evangelista Sagnelli, Pietro Filippini – 30 December 2003

Jeanne M. LaBerge, Robert K. Kerlan – 30 December 2003

Guilhermo Rezende, Anne Marie Roque‐Afonso, Didier Samuel, Michele Gigou, Elisabeth Nicand, Virginie Ferre, Elisabeth Dussaix, Henri Bismuth, Cyrille Féray – 30 December 2003 – Fulminant hepatitis is a severe complication of hepatitis A virus infection. Its mechanism is unknown. Liver transplantation can be necessary, but spontaneous recovery is frequent. There are no data on the level of viral replication according to the clinical form of hepatitis A. We reviewed the files of 50 patients with acute hepatitis A.

Ludwig Amigo, Pablo Mardones, Carla Ferrada, Silvana Zanlungo, Flavio Nervi, Juan Francisco Miquel, Attilio Rigotti – 30 December 2003 – Whereas hepatic lipase (HL) has been implicated in lipoprotein metabolism and atherosclerosis, its role in controlling biliary lipid physiology has not been reported. This work characterizes plasma lipoprotein cholesterol, hepatic cholesterol content, bile acid metabolism, biliary cholesterol secretion, and gallstone formation in HL‐deficient mice and C57BL/6 controls fed standard chow, a cholesterol‐supplemented diet, or a lithogenic diet.

Janet M. Larkin, Hope Coleman, Angelica Espinosa, Amy Levenson, Mee Soon Park, Bonnie Woo, Alice Zervoudakis, Vu Tinh – 30 December 2003 – Bile duct ligation (BDL) impairs basolateral‐to‐apical transcytosis in hepatocytes, causing accumulation of transcytotic carriers for the polymeric IgA receptor (pIgA‐R) and redistribution of secretory component (SC) from bile to blood.

Florence Lacaille – 30 December 2003