Julio A. Gutierrez, Carmen Landaverde, Jennifer T. Wells, Fred Poordad – 17 March 2016 – Management of obesity and decompensated cirrhosis in those requiring liver transplantation (LT) is a challenging dilemma. Because of concerns for perioperative complications, many centers avoid transplant in those with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 kg/m2. Bariatric surgery is associated with increased risk attributable to complications of portal hypertension, including variceal rupture. Therefore, weight loss and LT options are limited.

Jung‐Chin Chang, Simei Go, Dirk R. de Waart, Patricia Munoz‐Garrido, Ulrich Beuers, Coen C. Paulusma, Ronald Oude Elferink – 17 March 2016 – Anion exchanger 2 (AE2), the principal bicarbonate secretor in the human biliary tree, is down‐regulated in primary biliary cholangitis. AE2 creates a “bicarbonate umbrella” that protects cholangiocytes from the proapoptotic effects of bile salts by maintaining them deprotonated. We observed that knockdown of AE2 sensitized immortalized H69 human cholangiocytes to not only bile salt‐induced apoptosis (BSIA) but also etoposide‐induced apoptosis.

Rachel Abou Mrad, Nawal Merjaneh, Ghassan Mubarak, Rocio Lopez, Nizar N. Zein, Naim Alkhouri – 17 March 2016

Julien Bissonnette, Juan Carlos Garcia‐Pagán, Agustín Albillos, Fanny Turon, Carlos Ferreira, Luis Tellez, Jean‐Charles Nault, Nicolas Carbonell, Jean‐Paul Cervoni, Mohamed Abdel Rehim, Annie Sibert, Louis Bouchard, Pierre Perreault, Jonel Trebicka, Félix Trottier‐Tellier, Pierre‐Emmanuel Rautou, Dominique‐Charles Valla, Aurélie Plessier – 17 March 2016 – Idiopathic noncirrhotic portal hypertension is a heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by portal hypertension in the absence of cirrhosis.

Andrew B. Adams, Kenneth A. Newell – 17 March 2016

Raluca Wroblewski, Marietta Armaka, Vangelis Kondylis, Manolis Pasparakis, Henning Walczak, Hans‐Willi Mittrücker, Christoph Schramm, Ansgar W. Lohse, George Kollias, Hanno Ehlken – 17 March 2016 – Death receptor (DR) ligands such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) have been identified as fundamental mediators of liver damage both in mouse models and in humans. While the essential site of function of DR signaling is conceivably the hepatocyte, a systematic analysis is missing.

Hugo E. Vargas – 17 March 2016

Fasiha Kanwal, Steven M. Asch, Jennifer R. Kramer, Yumei Cao, Sumeet Asrani, Hashem B. El‐Serag – 17 March 2016 – Preventing readmission has been the focus of numerous quality improvement efforts across many conditions. Early outpatient follow‐up has been proposed as the best mechanism for reducing readmissions. The extent to which early outpatient follow‐up averts readmission or improves outcomes in cirrhosis is not known. We evaluated the relationship between early outpatient follow‐up and short‐term readmission and mortality in patients with cirrhosis.

Salvatore Petta, Antonio Craxì – 17 March 2016

Quan Rao, Bingfeng Zuo, Zhen Lu, Xianjun Gao, Abin You, Chenxuan Wu, Zhi Du, HaiFang Yin – 17 March 2016 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a global challenge due to high morbidity and mortality rates and poor response to treatment. Immunotherapy, based on introduction of dendritic cells (DCs) activated by tumor cell lysates as antigens ex vivo, shows limited response rates in HCC patients. Here, we demonstrate that tumor cell–derived exosomes (TEXs), displaying an array of HCC antigens, can elicit a stronger immune response than cell lysates in vitro and in vivo.