Anna J. Dare, Lindsay D. Plank, Anthony R. J. Phillips, Edward J. Gane, Barry Harrison, David Orr, Yannan Jiang, Adam S. J. R. Bartlett – 7 January 2014 – The effects of pretransplant obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary artery disease (CAD), and hypertension (HTN) on outcomes after liver transplantation (LT) are controversial. Questions have also been raised about the appropriateness of the body mass index (BMI) for assessing obesity in patients with end‐stage liver disease. Both issues have implications for organ allocation in LT.

Tony Gutschner, Monika Hämmerle, Nikolaos Pazaitis, Nadine Bley, Evgenij Fiskin, Hannah Uckelmann, Andreas Heim, Matthias Groβ, Nina Hofmann, Robert Geffers, Britta Skawran, Thomas Longerich, Kai Breuhahn, Peter Schirmacher, Britta Mühleck, Stefan Hüttelmaier, Sven Diederichs – 7 January 2014 – Hepatocarcinogenesis is a stepwise process. It involves several genetic and epigenetic alterations, e.g., loss of tumor suppressor gene expression (TP53, PTEN, RB) as well as activation of oncogenes (c‐MYC, MET, BRAF, RAS).

Melissa Martinez, Anand Tandra, Raj Vuppalanchi – 7 January 2014

Cristina López Sánchez, Oscar Len, Joan Gavalda, Itxarone Bilbao, Lluis Castells, Maria Arantzazu Gelabert, Helena Allende, Albert Pahissa – 7 January 2014 – Data from published studies regarding risk factors for liver biopsy (LB)–related infectious complications in liver transplant recipients are inconsistent. We carried out a retrospective cohort study analyzing consecutive LBs for orthotopic liver transplant patients at a tertiary hospital (2001‐2011): there were 667 LB procedures (575 percutaneous procedures and 92 transjugular procedures) in 286 liver transplant recipients.

Subash Gupta, Manav Wadhawan – 7 January 2014

Cleber R. Kruel, Aljamir Chedid, Tomaz Grezzana‐Filho, Ian Leipnitz – 7 January 2014

Wei Gao, Heungnam Kim, Mingqian Feng, Yen Phung, Charles P. Xavier, Jeffrey S. Rubin, Mitchell Ho – 6 January 2014 – Wnt signaling is important for cancer pathogenesis and is often up‐regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) function as coreceptors or modulators of Wnt activation. Glypican‐3 (GPC3) is an HSPG that is highly expressed in HCC, where it can attract Wnt proteins to the cell surface and promote cell proliferation. Thus, GPC3 has emerged as a candidate therapeutic target in liver cancer.

Don C. Rockey – 4 January 2014

James H. Tabibian, Steven P. O'Hara, Patrick L. Splinter, Christy E. Trussoni, Nicholas F. LaRusso – 4 January 2014 – Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is an incurable cholangiopathy of unknown etiopathogenesis. Here we tested the hypothesis that cholangiocyte senescence is a pathophysiologically important phenotype in PSC. We assessed markers of cellular senescence and senescence‐associated secretory phenotype (SASP) in livers of patients with PSC, primary biliary cirrhosis, hepatitis C, and in normals by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM).

Laura Coch, Marc Mejias, Annalisa Berzigotti, Ester Garcia‐Pras, Javier Gallego, Jaime Bosch, Raul Mendez, Mercedes Fernandez – 4 January 2014 – Pathological angiogenesis represents a critical hallmark for chronic liver diseases. Understanding the mechanisms regulating angiogenesis is essential to develop new therapeutic strategies that specifically target pathological angiogenesis without affecting physiological angiogenesis. Here we investigated the contribution and therapeutic impact of the endogenous angioinhibitor vasohibin‐1 in portal hypertension and cirrhosis.