Hyo‐Jung Kwon, Young‐Suk Won, Ogyi Park, Binxia Chang, Michael J. Duryee, Geoffrey E. Thiele, Akiko Matsumoto, Surendra Singh, Mohamed A. Abdelmegeed, Byoung‐Joon Song, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Vasilis Vasiliou, Geoffrey M. Thiele, Bin Gao – 3 February 2014 – Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is the major enzyme that metabolizes acetaldehyde produced from alcohol metabolism. Approximately 40‐50% of East Asians carry an inactive ALDH2 gene and exhibit acetaldehyde accumulation after alcohol consumption.

Michael D. Kluger, Karim J. Halazun, Ryan T. Barroso, Alyson N. Fox, Sonja K. Olsen, David C. Madoff, Abby B. Siegel, Joshua L. Weintraub, Jonathan Sussman, Robert S. Brown, Daniel Cherqui, Jean C. Emond – 3 February 2014 – There is conflicting literature regarding the superiority of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) versus bland transarterial embolization (TAE), and this has not been well studied before transplantation. Twenty‐five TAE patients were matched in a 1:2 ratio with TACE patients by the initial radiographic tumor size and number in a retrospective, case‐controlled study.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa – 3 February 2014

Manlio Vinciguerra – 3 February 2014

Jamak Modaresi Esfeh, Ibrahim A. Hanouneh, Christine E. Koval, Christopher Kovacs, Deepan S. Dalal, Kianoush Ansari‐Gilani, Bradley D. Confer, Bijan Eghtesad, Nizar N. Zein, K. V. Narayanan Menon – 3 February 2014 – Bacterial and fungal infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality after liver transplantation (LT). The role of intestinal decontamination in the prevention of post‐LT infections is controversial. Rifaximin is widely used for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy. The effect of rifaximin on post‐LT infections is unknown.

3 February 2014

Neil Mehta, Jennifer L. Dodge, John Paul Roberts, Ryutaro Hirose, Francis Y. Yao – 3 February 2014

Rita R. Alloway, Devin E. Eckhoff, W. Kenneth Washburn, Lewis W. Teperman – 3 February 2014 – LCP‐Tacro is an extended‐release formulation of tacrolimus designed for once‐daily dosing. Studies in renal transplantation demonstrate greater bioavailability with similar safety and efficacy vs. twice‐daily tacrolimus capsules.

Kenji Takahashi, Irene Yan, Hiroaki Haga, Tushar Patel – 3 February 2014 – The identification of the presence of large RNA transcripts that do not code for proteins but that may have biological functions has provided an important new perspective in gene regulation. These long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are being increasingly recognized to contribute to many biological processes through diverse mechanisms. The roles of these emerging genes are being recognized across kingdoms.

Ingrid Lua, David James, Jiaohong Wang, Kasper S. Wang, Kinji Asahina – 1 February 2014 – Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and portal fibroblasts (PFs) are believed to be the major source of myofibroblasts that participate in fibrogenesis by way of synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and extracellular matrices. Previous lineage tracing studies using MesP1Cre and Rosa26lacZflox mice demonstrated that MesP1+ mesoderm gives rise to mesothelial cells (MCs), which differentiate into HSCs and PFs during liver development.