Donatella Barisani, Gaetano Cairo, Enrico Ginelli, Anna Marozzi, Dario Conte – 30 December 2003 – Nitric oxide (NO) donors S‐nitroso‐N‐acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) modulate iron regulatory protein (IRP) activity and may, therefore, affect iron uptake through transferrin receptor expression. However, iron also enters the cell as nontransferrin‐bound iron (NTBI), and the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of NO donors on NTBI transport in HepG2 cells, a model of liver physiology.

Violina Lozeva, Antti Valjakka, Eeva Anttila, Ewen MacDonald, Mikko Hippeläinen, Leena Tuomisto – 30 December 2003 – To determine whether the increased histamine levels in the brain of rats with portacaval anastomosis (PCA) are associated with the development of sleep disturbances during the light phase, the neocortical slow‐wave activity of PCA‐operated rats was examined with electroencephalography (EEG) 1 month and 6 months after the surgery.

Ran Oren, Mariana D. Dabeva, Petko M. Petkov, Ethel Hurston, Ezio Laconi, David A. Shafritz – 30 December 2003 – Recently, we described a new strategy for hepatocyte transplantation, using retrorsine/partial hepatectomy (PH) in a DPPIV− mutant Fischer rat model. Treatment of rats with retrorsine, a pyrrolizidine alkaloid, blocks endogenous hepatocytes from proliferating, so that after exposure to this agent coupled with PH and hepatocyte transplantation, transplanted hepatocytes selectively repopulate the liver.

Marcello Piazza – 30 December 2003

Scott Kellerman, Miriam J. Alter – 30 December 2003

Albert Geerts, Vera Rogiers – 30 December 2003

Herbert L. Bonkovsky, J. Michael Woolley – 30 December 2003 – The natural history, prognosis, and clinical significance of chronic hepatitis C are highly variable and somewhat controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of chronic hepatitis C infection on patients' perceptions of health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) and to evaluate whether treatment with interferon improves HRQOL.

Wulf Otto Böcher, Sabine Herzog‐Hauff, Jörg Schlaak, Karl‐Hermann Meyer zum Büschenfelde, Hanns Friedrich Löhr – 30 December 2003 – Because cellular and humoral immune responses against the hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBs) might be crucial to overcome HBV infection, HBs‐specific B‐ and T‐cell responses of HBV patients and HBs vaccine recipients were analyzed quantitatively and functionally.

Stephan Vom Dahl, Johannes Georg Bode, Roland Michael Reinehr, Irmhild Mönnighoff, Ralf Kubitz, Dieter Häussinger – 30 December 2003 – The effects of perivascular nerve stimulation and phenylephrine on osmolyte release were studied in the intact perfused rat liver and isolated liver parenchymal cells (PC) and nonparenchymal cells.

30 December 2003