Acoustic liver biopsy in patients with hepatitis C and advanced liver fibrosis using endoscopic ultrasound.

Background: Transabdominal ultrasound cannot be used to quantitate fibrosis in patients with advanced liver fibrosis due to variability in the abdominal wall thickness and composition. This variability can be eliminated by using endoscopic ultrasound.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of fibrosis in the liver of hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis using endoscopic ultrasound.

Loss of macroautophagy promotes or prevents fibroblast apoptosis depending on the death stimulus.

Macroautophagy has been implicated as a mechanism of cell death. However, the relationship between this degradative pathway and cell death is unclear as macroautophagy has been shown recently to protect against apoptosis. To better define the interplay between these two critical cellular processes, we determined whether inhibition of macroautophagy could have both pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic effects in the same cell.

Locomotion, stereotypy, and dopamine D1 receptors after chronic "binge" cocaine in C57BL/6J and 129/J mice.

We have shown that C57BL/6J and 129/J mice differ in their behavioral response to "binge" pattern cocaine (three daily injections of 15 mg/kg separated by 1 h). To determine if these differences persist during chronic binge cocaine administration, we examined the effects of 14-day binge pattern cocaine on home cage behavior. Since the dopamine D(1) receptor may be an important mediator of cocaine-induced locomotor activity, we examined binding to the dopamine D(1) receptor.