M J Arthur – 30 December 2003

E Olaso, A Santisteban, J Bidaurrazaga, A M Gressner, J Rosenbaum, F Vidal‐Vanaclocha – 30 December 2003 – In this work we report the presence of intrametastatic smooth‐muscle iso‐α‐actin (SMA)‐expressing cells which appeared from the early stages of the hepatic metastasis process of intrasplenically injected B16 melanoma (B16M) cells. They formed a network of stromal cells among B16M cells, a very low percentage of them expressing desmin.

S Tanaka, L Mohr, E V Schmidt, K Sugimachi, J R Wands – 30 December 2003 – The human insulin receptor substrate‐1 (hIRS‐1) is a key intracellular protein involved in various cytokine signaling pathways associated with cell growth. We have previously demonstrated that stable transfection and overexpression of hIRS‐1 in human hepatoblastoma cells in vitro leads to the constitutive activation of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. In this setting, hIRS‐1 acts as a dominant oncogene and will induce neoplastic transformation of NIH 3T3 cells.

T Kojima, M Yamamoto, C Mochizuki, T Mitaka, N Sawada, Y Mochizuki – 30 December 2003 – In the present study, we determined in detail the changes of liver gap junctions, connexin 26 (Cx26), and connexin 32 (Cx32), during DNA synthesis and redifferentiation of hepatocytes in vitro. We used primary rat hepatocytes that expressed the liver gap junction proteins, which were cultured in the medium containing epidermal growth factor (EGF) with 2% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and 10‐7 mol/L glucagon (a DMSO culture system), as we previously reported.

H Feucht, B Zollner, S Polywka, B Knodler, M Schroter, H Nolte, R Laufs – 30 December 2003 – A new virus named hepatitis G virus (HGV) has been detected recently. Until now, no assays for the detection of antibodies against different HGV proteins have been commercially available. Therefore, a strip immunoblot assay has been established to investigate seroreactivity against recombinant structural (core) and nonstructural proteins (NS3 and NS4) of HGV produced in Escherichia coli.

H C Bodenheimer, K L Lindsay, G L Davis, J H Lewis, S N Thung, L B Seeff – 30 December 2003 – Hepatitis C is a common cause of chronic liver disease that may progress to cirrhosis. We conducted a multicenter double‐blind placebo‐controlled trial of ribavirin 600 mg given orally twice daily for 36 weeks with follow‐up off therapy for an additional 16 weeks. Fifty‐nine patients with compensated chronic hepatitis C were entered.

S Nakamura, H Muro, S Suzuki, T Sakaguchi, H Konno, S Baba, A S Syed – 30 December 2003 – To examine the phenotype of the sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs) surrounding tumor cells and the process of capillarization in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 51 primary HCCs, 4 adrenal metastases, and 3 portal tumor thrombi were immunohistochemically stained with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for CD4, CD14 (lipopolysaccharide‐binding protein complex receptors), and CD32 (Fc gamma receptor II), which are specifically found on the SECs in normal liver, but not on ordinary vascular endothelial cells (E

W H Lamers, W J Geerts, A Jonker, F J Verbeek, G T Wagenaar, A F Moorman – 30 December 2003 – The liver consists of numerous repeating, randomly oriented, more or less cylindrical units, the lobules. Although enzyme‐histochemical or microbiochemical assays accurately reflect zonal differences in lobular enzyme content, their results cannot be directly compared to biochemical assays. This is because section‐based assays typically sample along a linear portocentral column of cells, even though periportal regions contribute substantially more to hepatic volume than pericentral regions.

K D Lindor – 30 December 2003

D L Thiele – 30 December 2003