Junichi Shoda, Masahito Kano, Toru Asano, Tatsuro Irimura, Tetsuya Ueda, Ryu Iwasaki, Masato Furukawa, Junichi Kamiya, Yuji Nimura, Takeshi Todoroki, Yasushi Matsuzaki, Naomi Tanaka – 30 December 2003 – Intrahepatic calculi is characterized by an intractable course and frequent recurrences, requiring multiple operative interventions. Chronic proliferative cholangitis, an active and long‐standing inflammation of the stone‐containing bile ducts with the hyperplasia of epithelia and the proliferation of the duct‐associated mucus glands, may underlie the complex nature of the disease.

Paul C. Adams – 30 December 2003

D. Montgomery Bissell – 30 December 2003

Gabriella Fibbi, Marco Pucci, Cecilia Grappone, Giulia Pellegrini, Renata Salzano, Alessandro Casini, Stefano Milani, Mario Del Rosso – 30 December 2003 – During liver fibrogenesis, hepatic stellate cells (HSC) proliferate and migrate under the influence of growth factors, including platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) and basic‐fibroblast growth factor (b‐FGF). The plasminogen activation system regulates extracellular matrix (ECM) catabolism and cell movement.

Maria José Amaro, Javier Bartolomé, Vicente Carreño – 30 December 2003 – The capability of hepatitis B virus (HBV) to increase the transcription of the human hepatic inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) by transactivating its promoter has been studied. We have observed by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) that although the mRNA for the iNOS was almost undetectable in the human hepatoblastoma cell line, HepG2, it was constitutively expressed in the 2.2.15 cell line (a derivative of the HepG2 that produces complete HBV particles).

Shivti Trop, Dimitri Samsonov, Israel Gotsman, Ruslana Alper, Judith Diment, Yaron Ilan – 30 December 2003 – Oral tolerance is the induction of immunological hyporesponsiveness towards orally administered antigens. Tolerance initiation involves induction of anti‐inflammatory (Th2) lymphocytes, with downregulation of pro‐inflammatory (Th1) lymphocytes. The liver was previously shown to play a critical role in oral tolerance induction.

Man‐Fung Yuen, Wei‐Ling Lim, Chi‐Chung Cheng, Shiu‐Kam Lam, Ching‐Lung Lai – 30 December 2003 – A total of 318 children were prospectively randomized in group 1 with two 5‐μg doses of recombinant vaccine given at 0 and 1 month; in group 2 with three 5‐μg doses of recombinant vaccine given at 0, 1, and 6 months; or in group 3 with three doses of plasma‐derived vaccine given at 0, 1, and 6 months. Eleven subjects with a hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (anti‐HBs) titer of less than 10 mIU/mL at 12 months were given an extra dose of vaccine and were excluded from analysis.

Tullia Maria De Feo, Silvia Fargion, Lorena Duca, Michela Mattioli, Maria Domenica Cappellini, Maurizio Sampietro, Bruno Mario Cesana, Gemino Fiorelli – 30 December 2003 – Carbohydrate‐deficient transferrin(CDT) a microheterogeneous form of serum transferrin (Tf) has been proposed as the most reliable marker of chronic alcohol consumption, although unexplained false‐positive and ‐negative results have been reported.We investigated whether body iron influenced CDT serum levels by studying alcohol abusers with or without iron overload and nonabusers with iron deficiency or iron overload cause

Karl P. Fischer – 30 December 2003

Abel Gorchein, Graham R. Foster – 30 December 2003