Jenny Heathcote – 30 December 2003

Naga Chalasani, J. Christopher Gorski, Nilesh H. Patel, Stephen D. Hall, Raymond E. Galinsky – 30 December 2003

Florence Wong, Peter Liu, Laurence Blendis – 30 December 2003 – Renal sodium retention on standing is one aspect of the abnormal renal sodium handling in preascitic, well‐compensated patients with cirrhosis. Recently, it has been shown that low doses (7.5 mg) of the angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonist, losartan, can reverse renal sodium retention on high, 200‐mmol sodium/d diet in these patients and restore them to sodium balance.

Noriatsu Kanno, Gene LeSage, Jo Lynne Phinizy, Shannon Glaser, Heather Francis, Gianfranco Alpini – 30 December 2003 – Growth factor signaling, mediated by the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, induces cell mitosis. Adenosine 3',5'‐monophosphate (cAMP) may inhibit or stimulate mitosis (depending on the cell type) through the activation of MAPK and Raf proteins. Among Raf proteins, Raf‐1 and B‐Raf differentially regulate mitosis.

Aldo D. Mottino, Jingsong Cao, Luis M. Veggi, Fernando Crocenzi, Marcelo G. Roma, Mary Vore – 30 December 2003 – Estradiol‐17β‐D‐glucuronide (E217G), an endogenous metabolite of estradiol, induces a potent dose‐dependent and reversible inhibition of bile flow in the rat. We analyzed the effect of a single dose of E217G (15 μmol/kg, intravenously) to female rats on bile flow and the endocytic retrieval and function of the canalicular multidrug resistance‐associated protein 2 (Mrp2) and the effect of pretreatment with dibutyryl‐cyclic AMP (DBcAMP; 20 μmol/kg) on these measures.

Johannes Herkel, Birgit Heidrich, Nicole Nieraad, Ingrid Wies, Michael Rother, Ansgar W. Lohse – 30 December 2003 – Autoantibodies to soluble liver antigen and liver pancreas (SLA/LP) have been described as specific markers for Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH), occurring in about 20% of patients with AIH. The high degree of specificity for SLA/LP in autoimmune liver disease suggests a possible role in its pathogenesis. This study aims to map the exact epitope(s) recognized by SLA/LP autoantibodies and to assess the role of molecular mimicry between microbial antigens and self‐epitopes.

Aaron Ciechanover, Alan L. Schwartz – 30 December 2003

Christophe Corpechot, Raoul Poupon – 30 December 2003

Takeo Shimazaki, Masao Honda, Shuichi Kaneko, Kenichi Kobayashi – 30 December 2003 – Translation of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) polyprotein is mediated by an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) that is located within the 5′‐nontranslated region (5′NTR). We investigated the effect of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) on the IRES‐directed translation of HCV, using two stably transformed cell lines, RCF‐1 and RCF‐26, of Huh7 cells derived from human hepatocellular carcinoma that express dicistronic reporter proteins, Renilla luciferase (RL) and firefly luciferase (FL), separated by HCV‐IRES.

E. Anthony Jones, Cristina Lavini – 30 December 2003