WITHDRAWN: S-adenosyl-L-methionine for alcoholic liver diseases.

The review is withdrawn as it was abandoned and has not been updated since its last edition in 2008. A new team of authors resumed the work on the review, and so far, a major update to the protocol is published. The review is expected to be finalised towards the end of 2016.

Pentoxifylline for alcoholic hepatitis.

Background: Alcoholic hepatitis is a life-threatening disease, with an average mortality of approximately 40%. There is no widely accepted, effective treatment for alcoholic hepatitis. Pentoxifylline is used to treat alcoholic hepatitis, but there has been no systematic review to assess its effects.

Milk thistle for alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C liver diseases--a systematic cochrane hepato-biliary group review with meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials.

Objectives: Our objectives were to assess the beneficial and harmful effects of milk thistle (MT) or MT constituents versus placebo or no intervention in patients with alcoholic liver disease and/or hepatitis B and/or C liver diseases.

Methods: Randomized clinical trials studying patients with alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C liver diseases were included (December 2003). The randomized clinical trials were evaluated by components of methodological quality.

Thiamine deficiency results in downregulation of the GLAST glutamate transporter in cultured astrocytes.

Pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency (TD) is a well-established model of Wernicke's encephalopathy in which a glutamate-mediated excitotoxic mechanism may play an important role in determining selective vulnerability. In order to examine this possibility, cultured astrocytes were exposed to TD and effects on glutamate transport and metabolic function were studied. TD led to decreases in cellular levels of thiamine and thiamine diphosphate (TDP) after 24 h of treatment and decreased activities of the TDP-dependent enzymes alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase and transketolase after 4 and 7 days, respectively.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids for alcoholic liver disease: a Cochrane review.

Objectives: The objectives were to assess the beneficial and harmful effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids for alcoholic liver disease.

Methods: The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register, The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and full text searches were combined. Only randomized clinical trials studying patients with alcoholic liver disease were included.