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.

Norihiro Kokudo, Keiichiro Tada, Makoto Seki, Hirotoshi Ohta, Kaoru Azekura, Masashi Ueno, Keiichiro Ohta, Toshiharu Yamaguchi, Toshiki Matsubara, Takashi Takahashi, Toshifusa Nakajima, Tetsuichiro Muto, Takaaki Ikari, Akio Yanagisawa, Yo Kato – 30 December 2003 – Although hemihepatic portal vein embolization (PVE) has been used preoperatively to extend indications for hepatectomy in patients with colorectal metastases, the effects of this procedure on tumor growth and outcome remain controversial.

Robert A. de Man, Patrick Marcellin, Flavio Habal, Paul Desmond, Teresa Wright, Toby Rose, Regina Jurewicz, Clarence Young, the Famciclovir Hepatitis B Study Group – 30 December 2003 – We conducted a randomized, placebo‐controlled clinical study evaluating famciclovir (500 mg 3 times daily and 1.5 g once daily) for 1 year (6 months post‐treatment follow‐up) in patients with chronic hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)‐positive hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The study was conducted in 80 centers in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand.

Isabel Fabregat, Blanca Herrera, Margarita Fernández, Alberto M. Álvarez, Aránzazu Sánchez, César Roncero, Juan‐José Ventura, Ángela M. Valverde, Manuel Benito – 30 December 2003 – Transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β)–mediated apoptosis is one of the major death processes in the liver. We have previously shown that epidermal growth factor (EGF) is an important survival signal for TGF‐β–induced apoptosis in fetal hepatocytes (Fabregat et al., FEBS Lett 1996;384:14‐18). In this work we have studied the intracellular signaling implicated in the protective effect of EGF.

Smita Rouillard, Nancy E. Lane – 30 December 2003

C. Charles Barton, Eva X. Barton, Patricia E. Ganey, Steven L. Kunkel, Robert A. Roth – 30 December 2003 – Exposure to a nontoxic dose of bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]) potentiates the hepatotoxicity of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). Because some of the pathophysiologic effects associated with LPS are mediated through tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α), this study was conducted to explore the role of TNF‐α in the AFB1/LPS model.