Terrence M. Donohue, Rowen K. Zetterman, Zhi‐Qi Zhang‐Gouillon, Samuel W. French – 30 December 2003 – Ethanol consumption slows down the rate of hepatic protein catabolism. The present study was conducted to determine whether ethanol consumption, given by voluntary (pair) feeding or by intragastric administration, affected the peptidase activities of the proteasome in rat liver. Rats were pair‐fed liquid diets containing either ethanol or isocaloric maltose‐dextrin.

Martin Bickel, Karl‐Heinz Baringhaus, Martin Gerl, Volkmar Günzler, Jiri Kanta, Ludwig Schmidts, Michael Stapf, Georg Tschank, Klaus Weidmann, Ulrich Werner – 30 December 2003 – Fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver are often the result of chronic liver damage by a variety of different agents. Pathological accumulation of collagen, disruption of the lobular structure, and impaired hepatocellular function frequently lead to systemic involvement and fatal complications.

Joanne M. Donovan, Audrey A. Jackson – 30 December 2003 – The intermixed micellar/intervesicular bile salt (BS) concentration (IMC), composed of BS monomers and simple micelles, is in dynamic equilibrium with mixed micelles and vesicles. Accurate separation of biliary lipid aggregates is believed to depend on accurately measuring the IMC. Using centrifugal ultrafiltration, we measured the IMC of cholesterol‐supersaturated model biles that were physiologically composed.

L. Taylor, Z García, G Herrera, R B Luftig, K A Visoná – 30 December 2003

José Santos‐Álvarez, Carmen González‐Yanes, Víctor Sánchez‐Margalet – 30 December 2003 – Pancreastatin (PST), a recently discovered regulatory peptide derived from chromogranin A, has been shown to have a glycogenolytic effect in the hepatocyte that is mediated by increasing intracellular calcium. Our previous studies on pancreastatin signaling suggested that PST receptor is coupled to some G proteins in the plasma membrane of the hepatocyte. The nature of this interaction was investigated using antisera against Gq/11α by different approaches.

Maria Jose Moran, Antonio Fontanellas, Eric Brudieux, Isabelle Hombrados, Victor de Ledinghen, Patrice Couzigou, Hubert de Verneuil, Rafael Enriquez De Salamanca – 30 December 2003 – Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is caused by a decreased activity of the hepatic enzyme uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (URO‐D). This deficiency causes overproduction, hepatic deposition, and increased excretion of uroporphyrin. Iron overload and hepatic viral infections are considered aggravating factors of the disease.

Nynke R. Koopen, Henk Wolters, Rick Havinga, Roel J. Vonk, Peter L. Jansen, Michael Müller, Folkert Kuipers – 30 December 2003 – To test the hypothesis that impaired activity of the bile canalicular organic anion transporting system mrp2 (cmoat) is a key event in the etiology of 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE)‐induced intrahepatic cholestasis in rats, EE (5 mg/kg subcutaneously daily) was administered to male normal Wistar (NW) and mrp2‐deficient Groningen Yellow/Transport‐deficient Wistar (GY/TR−) rats.

Shigeru Kakumitsu, Hiroshi Shijo, Masanori Yokoyama, Tetsuhiro Kim, Nobuo Akiyoshi, Kazuhiro Ota, Katsuhiko Kubara, Makoto Okumura, Kazuhide Inoue – 30 December 2003 – Nitric oxide (NO) is known to play an important role in modulating both the hepatic and mesenteric circulation under physiological and pathological conditions. We investigated how l‐arginine, a precursor of NO, modifies the hepatic and mesenteric circulation in patients with cirrhosis. The study design was a single‐blind controlled study.

C. Hezode, C. Cazeneuve, O. Coué, J. M. Pawlotsky, E. S. Zafrani, S. Amselem, D. Dhumeaux – 30 December 2003

A. S. Knisely, Nelson B. Freimer – 30 December 2003