Keith R. Loeb, Keith R. Jerome, James Goddard, Meei‐li Huang, Anne Cent, Lawrence Corey – 30 December 2003 – Reproducible quantitative assays to detect viral nucleic acids have proven useful in defining disease progression and following response to therapy in a wide variety of viral infections. We describe the development of a quantitative assay to detect hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA using real‐time fluorescent‐probe polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (TaqMan).

Antony J. Ellis, Julia A. Wendon, Roger Williams – 30 December 2003 – Subclinical seizure activity in the patient with encephalopathy and on ventilation with acute liver failure (ALF) is a poorly recognized entity. Its importance lies in the likely exacerbation of cerebral hypoxia and the contribution of such seizure activity to the development of cerebral edema.

Stuart C. Gordon, Jane W. Fang, Ann L. Silverman, John G. McHutchison, Janice K. Albrecht – 30 December 2003 – We sought to determine whether pretreatment serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) correlate with demographic features and other disease characteristics and whether these values influence response to therapy. A total of 1,744 patients with HCV received either interferon alfa‐2b and placebo or combination interferon alfa‐2b and ribavirin for 24 or 48 weeks.

Eiji Tanaka, Chiharu Ohue, Katsumi Aoyagi, Kenjiro Yamaguchi, Shintaro Yagi, Kendo Kiyosawa, Harvey J. Alter – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical performance of a new enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen in comparison with the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). A total of 310 patients with acute or chronic hepatitis C, and 132 HCV‐negative controls were studied.

Philippe Mathurin, Qing‐Gao Deng, Ali Keshavarzian, Sandeep Choudhary, Earle W. Holmes, Hidekazu Tsukamoto – 30 December 2003 – Increased gut permeability (leaky gut) and endotoxin‐mediated Kupffer cell activation are proposed as the mechanisms of alcoholic liver injury. Although ethanol feeding is shown to sensitize the liver for injury induced by parental administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), how enteral LPS loading affects alcoholic liver injury is yet to be tested.

Raghavakaimal Sreekumar, Alvaro Gonzalez‐Koch, Yaakov Maor‐Kendler, Kenneth Batts, Laura Moreno‐Luna, John Poterucha, Lawrence Burgart, Russell Wiesner, Walter Kremers, Charles Rosen, Michael R. Charlton – 30 December 2003 – Approximately half of patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) develop histologic evidence of recurrence within the first postoperative year. Early identification of recipients at risk for more severe recurrence of HCV may be useful in selecting patients for antiviral therapy.

Michael Malinchoc, Patrick S. Kamath – 30 December 2003

Yan‐jun Zhang, Kenichi Ikejima, Hajime Honda, Tsuneo Kitamura, Yoshiyuki Takei, Nobuhiro Sato – 30 December 2003 – Apoptosis of sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs) is one of the initial events in the development of ischemia‐reperfusion injury of the liver. Glycine has been shown to diminish ischemia‐reperfusion injury in the liver and improve graft survival in the rat liver transplantation model. Here, we investigated the effect of glycine on apoptosis of primary cultured rat SECs induced by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) deprivation.

Alison Fox‐Robichaud, Paul Kubes – 30 December 2003 – To date, much of the adhesion work in the liver has been restricted to sinusoids and postsinusoidal venules. However, selectins have been localized on the portal (presinusoidal) venules and these vessels have been shown to be important in metastasis of tumors. The purpose of this study was to characterize the leukocyte‐endothelial interactions within the 3 compartments of the hepatic microvasculature under baseline conditions and in response to tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α).

Gundumi Aravinda Upadhya, Steven M. Strasberg – 30 December 2003 – UW solution and HTK solution are both used for cold preservation of liver allografts. Although they are about equally effective, their compositions are very different, and they were formulated using different rationales. The authors recently showed an important role for MMPs in liver preservation injury and consequently postulated that these preservation solutions contain cryptic inhibitors of MMP activity. To determine this possibility, the ability of these solutions to inhibit MMP activity was studied.