Andrew Bathgate, Matthias Dollinger, John Plevris, Christopher Bellamy, Peter Hayes – 30 December 2003 – The loss of hepatic allografts to the rejection processes is now relatively rare, and the reduction of adverse effects related to immunosuppressive therapy is becoming more important as patients survive longer after transplantation. We therefore investigated the response to a contact neoantigen before liver transplantation as a predictor of acute rejection after transplantation.

Allister J. Grant, Patricia F. Lalor, Stefan G. Hübscher, Michael Briskin, David H. Adams – 30 December 2003 – Mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule (MAdCAM‐1) plays a pivotal role in T‐lymphocyte homing to the gut. Given the strong association between the autoimmune liver diseases primary sclerosing cholangitis and autoimmune hepatitis and inflammatory bowel disease, we investigated the role of MAdCAM‐1 in recruiting mucosal lymphocytes to the liver. MAdCAM‐1 was strongly expressed on inflamed portal vein/sinusoidal endothelium in autoimmune mediated liver disease.

Wei Li, Xianping Liang, Julie I. Leu, Kellen Kovalovich, Gennaro Ciliberto, Rebecca Taub – 30 December 2003 – Liver regeneration following 70% partial hepatectomy leads to rapid activation of genes in the remnant liver. Interleukin‐6 deficient (IL‐6 −/−) mice have impaired liver regeneration and abnormalities in immediate early gene expression. In this study, the gene expression program in the IL‐6 +/+ and −/− livers at 2 hours posthepatectomy was examined with a cDNA array representing 588 highly regulated mouse genes.

Bernd Kronenberger, Brigitte Rüster, Robert Elez, Stephan Weber, Albrecht Piiper, Jung‐Hun Lee, W. Kurt Roth, Stefan Zeuzem – 30 December 2003 – CD81 protein has been shown to bind hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope 2 (E2) glycoprotein in vitro and may act as a (co)receptor for HCV. Regulation of CD81 expression by interferon alfa (IFN‐α) and ribavirin could thereby affect the response to antiviral therapy.

Min Sun, James R. Eshleman, Linda D. Ferrell, Gretta Jacobs, Eulalia C. Sudilovsky, Ralph Tuthill, Mahmoud R. Hussein, Oscar Sudilovsky – 30 December 2003 – Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of chromosome 1 has been suggested, by karyotyping, to be an initial episode in human hepatocarcinogenesis. However, this alteration has not yet been investigated in cirrhotic nodules (CNs) or dysplastic nodules (DNs).

Man‐Fung Yuen, Chee‐Kin Hui, Chi‐Chung Cheng, Chi‐Hang Wu, Yim‐Ping Lai, Ching‐Lung Lai – 30 December 2003 – The long‐term effect of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B infection is unknown. A total of 411 chronic hepatitis B patients (208 treated with IFN‐α and 203 as control) were followed up for hepatitis B serology and the development of hepatoma and other cirrhosis‐related complications.

Norah Terrault, Mang Ma – 30 December 2003

Zhaorui Lian, Jie Liu, Jingbo Pan, N. Lale Satiroglu Tufan, Minghua Zhu, Patrick Arbuthnot, Michael Kew, Marcy M. Clayton, Mark A. Feitelson – 30 December 2003 – Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) select complementary DNA (cDNA) subtraction of hepatitis B x antigen (HBxAg)‐positive compared with ‐negative HepG2 cells resulted in the up‐regulated expression of a cellular gene that encodes a transcript of 745 bases and a polypeptide 99 amino acids long.

Volker Schmitz, Miguel Barajas, Lin Wang, Dacheng Peng, Marina Duarte, Jesús Prieto, Cheng Qian – 30 December 2003 – Unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) lacks effective therapy and entails very poor prognosis. In this study, we have explored a gene‐therapeutic approach to stimulate antitumor immunity by adenoviral‐mediated transfer of CD40 ligand to treat HCC in rats. In vitro infection of a rat HCC cell line (McA‐RH7777) with adenoviral vector expressing CD40 ligand (AdCMVmCD40L) induced CD40L expression in a dose‐dependent manner.

Markus Backmund, Kirsten Meyer, Michael Von Zielonka, Dieter Eichenlaub – 30 December 2003 – Chronic hepatitis C is the most common infectious disease among injection drug users (IDUs). Because of the allegedly poor compliance of IDUs with treatment requirements and conditions, hepatologists recommend treatment only if former IDUs have spent 6 to 12 months drug free. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate whether opiate‐dependent IDUs with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can be treated successfully with interferon.