Branden D. Tarlow, Milton J. Finegold, Markus Grompe – 22 February 2014 – Proliferating ducts, termed “oval cells,” have long been thought to be bipotential, that is, produce both biliary ducts and hepatocytes during chronic liver injury. The precursor to oval cells is considered to be a facultative liver stem cell (LSC). Recent lineage tracing experiments indicated that the LSC is SRY‐related HMG box transcription factor 9 postive (Sox9+) and can replace the bulk of hepatocyte mass in several settings.

Ashwani K. Singal, Charles Parker, Christine Bowden, Manish Thapar, Lawrence Liu, Brendan M. McGuire – 22 February 2014 – Porphyrias are a group of eight metabolic disorders, each resulting from a mutation that affects an enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway. Porphyrias are classified as hepatic or erythropoietic, depending upon the site where the gene defect is predominantly expressed.

Runping Liu, Renping Zhao, Xiqiao Zhou, Xiuyin Liang, Deanna J.W. Campbell, Xiaoxuan Zhang, Luyong Zhang, Ruihua Shi, Guangji Wang, William M. Pandak, Alphonse E. Sirica, Phillip B. Hylemon, Huiping Zhou – 22 February 2014 – Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an often fatal primary malignancy of the intra‐ and extrahepatic biliary tract that is commonly associated with chronic cholestasis and significantly elevated levels of primary and conjugated bile acids (CBAs), which are correlated with bile duct obstruction (BDO). BDO has also recently been shown to promote CCA progression.

Jacqueline G. O'Leary, Hugo Kaneku, Linda Jennings, Brian M. Susskind, Paul I. Terasaki, Göran B. Klintmalm – 21 February 2014 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) fibrosis progression after liver transplantation (LT) is accelerated in comparison with fibrosis progression before transplantation. The vast majority of the risk factors for fibrosis progression after LT are not modifiable.

Kara M. Sullivan, David M. Radosevich, John R. Lake – 21 February 2014 – In this study, we describe a cohort of patients who received liver transplants before January 1, 1989 at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC), and we evaluate the health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) of the survivors of this group. One hundred sixty‐one patients—66 adults and 95 children—received whole deceased donor liver transplants.

Stefano Salizzoni, Renato Romagnoli, Pietro Rispoli, Paolo Strignano, Roberta Suita, Ezio David, Michele Torre, Mauro Rinaldi – 21 February 2014

Michael Bauer, Michael Kiehntopf – 20 February 2014

Jasmohan S. Bajaj, Jacqueline G. O'Leary, K. Rajender Reddy, Florence Wong, Scott W. Biggins, Heather Patton, Michael B. Fallon, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, Benedict Maliakkal, Raza Malik, Ram M. Subramanian, Leroy R. Thacker, Patrick S. Kamath, the North American Consortium for the Study of End-stage Liver Disease (NACSELD) – 20 February 2014 – Infections worsen survival in cirrhosis; however, simple predictors of survival in infection‐related acute‐on‐chronic liver failure (I‐ACLF) derived from multicenter studies are required in order to improve prognostication and resource allocation.

Jing Yang, Laura E. Mowry, Kari Nichole Nejak‐Bowen, Hirohisa Okabe, Cassandra R. Diegel, Richard A. Lang, Bart O. Williams, Satdarshan P. Monga – 20 February 2014 – Liver‐specific β‐catenin knockout (β‐Catenin‐LKO) mice have revealed an essential role of β‐catenin in metabolic zonation where it regulates pericentral gene expression and in initiating liver regeneration (LR) after partial hepatectomy (PH), by regulating expression of Cyclin‐D1. However, what regulates β‐catenin activity in these events remains an enigma.

Jessica Liu, Hwai‐I Yang, Mei‐Hsuan Lee, Richard Batrla‐Utermann, Chin‐Lan Jen, Sheng‐Nan Lu, Li‐Yu Wang, San‐Lin You, Chuhsing Kate Hsiao, Chien‐Jen Chen, the R.E.V.E.A.L.‐HBV Study Group – 20 February 2014 – Spontaneous seroclearance of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA undetectability are important milestones of chronic hepatitis B and major treatment endpoints of antiviral therapy. This study investigated the role of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels and established models for predicting HBeAg seroclearance and HBV DNA undetectability.