E B Keeffe, F B Hollinger – 30 December 2003 – Chronic hepatitis C is an insidious disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Currently, the only approved therapies for chronic hepatitis C are the α interferons. Consensus interferon (CIFN) is a nonnatural, synthetic, recombinant type I interferon derived by assigning the most commonly observed amino acid in each position of several α interferon nonallelic subtypes to generate a consensus sequence. The efficacy and safety of CIFN in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C were assessed in two large phase 3 trials.

R P Perrillo – 30 December 2003 – This article reviews the ways in which liver biopsy provides a resource to the clinician when making management decisions for patients with chronic hepatitis C. Liver biopsy provides information about the extent and distribution of inflammation and allows grading and staging of the disease (the amount of fibrosis). Furthermore, the liver biopsy allows some assessment of the rate of disease progression whenever the date of onset of infection is known.

M J Tong, L M Blatt, J G McHutchison, R L Co, A Conrad – 30 December 2003 – Patients with chronic hepatitis C (n = 103) were treated for 24 weeks with interferon alfa 2b and followed up for 24 weeks after cessation of therapy (week 48). When hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA at week 48 was used to assess interferon response, 15 (14.6%) were virological complete responders, and all have remained HCV RNA negative for a mean of 3 years. At week 48, 3 of 15 virological complete responders had elevated alanine transaminase (ALT) values.

M Wettstein, D Haussinger – 30 December 2003 – Medium osmolarity sensitively regulates Kupffer cell functions like phagocytosis and prostaglandin (PG) and cytokine production. Betaine and taurine, recently identified as osmolytes in liver cells, interfere with these effects. Because Kupffer cell activation is an important pathogenic mechanism in ischemia‐reoxygenation injury, the influence of osmolarity and osmolytes was investigated in a rat liver perfusion model of warm ischemia.

T Kitada, S Seki, K Nakatani, N Kawada, T Kuroki, T Monna – 30 December 2003 – C‐Myb is a sequence‐specific DNA binding protein that regulates the expression of genes involved in cell proliferation and differentiation. The present study was designed to elucidate the role of c‐Myb in the pathogenesis of chronic liver disease by an immunohistochemical approach. In normal (control) livers, few or no hepatic cells were positive for c‐Myb.

I Leclercq, A Saliez, P E Wallemacq, Y Horsmans, L Lambotte – 30 December 2003 – Although the monoethylglycinexylidide (MEGX) test defined as a single determination of MEGX plasma concentration after lidocaine injection has been proposed as a liver function test, some discrepancies appeared in assessing the quality of liver donor for transplantation as well as the severity of liver disease. The present study used a severe ischemia‐ reperfusion liver injury (IRI) in rat to evaluate the various factors able to influence the level of MEGX.

G Wensing, E Lotterer, I Link, E G Hahn, W E Fleig – 30 December 2003 – The relationship between the impairment in hepatic and renal function in cirrhosis has not been well established. This study investigated urinary sodium excretion in comparison with quantitative parameters of liver function in 75 patients with various degrees of cirrhosis kept on a constant salt diet of 120 mmol/d for 5 days before the start of the study.

R Jalan, E H Forrest, A J Stanley, D N Redhead, J Forbes, J F Dillon, A J MacGilchrist, N D Finlayson, P C Hayes – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study was to compare transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent‐shunt (TIPSS) with variceal band ligation (VBL) in the secondary prophylaxis of esophageal variceal hemorrhage in patients with cirrhosis. Fifty‐eight patients with cirrhosis who presented with the first episode of esophageal variceal hemorrhage were randomized to TIPSS (31) or VBL (27), 24 hours after control of bleeding.

A S Petrides, D E Matthews, U Eßer – 30 December 2003 – We examined whether a single bout of moderate exercise has a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity and fuel homeostasis in cirrhosis. Clinically stable cirrhotic patients and age‐, sex‐, and weight‐matched controls participated in insulin clamp studies (either euglycemic hyperinsulinemic or hyperglycemic hyperinsulinemic) in combination with indirect calorimetry and [6,6‐2H2]glucose.

A Sanchez, A M Alvarez, M Benito, I Fabregat – 30 December 2003 – We have previously reported that transforming growth factor‐beta (TGF‐β) induces apoptosis in fetal hepatocytes in primary culture. This effect was found to be associated with an increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a lowering of total cellular reduced glutathione (GSH). In this study, we investigated whether protein synthesis plays a role in these TGF‐β‐induced effects.