Joel Wedd, Kiran M. Bambha, Matt Stotts, Heather Laskey, Jordi Colmenero, Jane Gralla, Scott W. Biggins – 10 June 2014 – The Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score has reduced predictive ability in patients with cirrhosis and MELD scores ≤ 20. We aimed to assess whether a 5‐stage clinical model could identify liver transplantation (LT) candidates with low MELD scores who are at increased risk for death. We conducted a case‐control study of subjects with cirrhosis and MELD scores ≤ 20 who were awaiting LT at a single academic medical center between February 2002 and May 2011.

Edoardo G. Giannini, Alessandro Cucchetti, Alessandro Vitale – 10 June 2014

Kangsheng Tu, Jiachu Li, Vikas K. Verma, Chunsheng Liu, Daniel D. Billadeau, Georg Lamprecht, Xiaoyu Xiang, Luyang Guo, Renumathy Dhanasekaran, Lewis R. Roberts, Vijay H. Shah, Ningling Kang – 10 June 2014 – Liver microenvironment is a critical determinant for development and progression of liver metastasis. Under transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β) stimulation, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which are liver‐specific pericytes, transdifferentiate into tumor‐associated myofibroblasts that promote tumor implantation (TI) and growth in the liver.

Julio D. Vorobioff, Roberto J. Groszmann – 9 June 2014 – Pharmacological treatment of portal hypertension (PH) has been exclusively devoted to gastroesophageal varices–related events at different frameworks, including prophylactic, emergency, or preventive therapy. The goals of treatment are to avoid the first bleeding episode, stop active bleeding, and prevent bleeding recurrence, respectively. The objective of preprimary prophylaxis (PPP) is to avoid variceal development, and therefore it necessarily deals with patients with cirrhosis at earlier stages of the disease.

Ian N. Crispe – 9 June 2014

Kenneth Cusi – 9 June 2014

Loretta L. Jophlin, David G. Koch – 9 June 2014

Julio D. Vorobioff, Roberto J. Groszmann – 9 June 2014 – Pharmacological treatment of portal hypertension (PH) has been exclusively devoted to gastroesophageal varices–related events at different frameworks, including prophylactic, emergency, or preventive therapy. The goals of treatment are to avoid the first bleeding episode, stop active bleeding, and prevent bleeding recurrence, respectively. The objective of preprimary prophylaxis (PPP) is to avoid variceal development, and therefore it necessarily deals with patients with cirrhosis at earlier stages of the disease.

Deshui Jia, Rui Dong, Ying Jing, Dan Xu, Qifeng Wang, Lei Chen, Qigen Li, Yuping Huang, Yuannv Zhang, Zhenfeng Zhang, Li Liu, Shan Zheng, Qiang Xia, Hongyang Wang, Kuiran Dong, Xianghuo He – 9 June 2014 – Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common primary liver tumor in children. Mutations in the β‐catenin gene that lead to constitutive activation of the Wnt pathway have been detected in a large proportion of HB tumors. To identify novel mutations in HB, we performed whole‐exome sequencing of six paired HB tumors and their corresponding lymphocytes.

Jürgen J. Wenzel, Mathias Sichler, Mathias Schemmerer, Gundula Behrens, Michael F. Leitzmann, Wolfgang Jilg – 9 June 2014 – In the past decade, an increasing frequency of acute hepatitis E was noted in Germany and other European countries. Moreover, a high prevalence (17%) of hepatitis E virus (HEV) immunoglobulin G antibodies (anti‐HEV) was recently found in the adult German population. Although this suggests an emerging pathogen, reports from other countries gave hints to a completely new aspect: a possible decrease in anti‐HEV prevalence during the last decades.