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.

Melissa Martinez, Anand Tandra, Raj Vuppalanchi – 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.

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.

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).

Don C. Rockey – 4 January 2014

Robert J. Wong, Ramsey Cheung, Aijaz Ahmed – 25 December 2013 – Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is currently the third leading indication for liver transplantation (LT) in the U.S. and is predicted to become the leading indication for LT in the near future. The trends in NASH‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among LT recipients in the U.S. remain undefined. We performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate trends in the etiology of HCC among adult LT recipients in the U.S. from 2002 to 2012, using national data from the United Network for Organ Sharing registry.

Robert J. Wong, Ramsey Cheung, Aijaz Ahmed – 25 December 2013 – Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is currently the third leading indication for liver transplantation (LT) in the U.S. and is predicted to become the leading indication for LT in the near future. The trends in NASH‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among LT recipients in the U.S. remain undefined. We performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate trends in the etiology of HCC among adult LT recipients in the U.S. from 2002 to 2012, using national data from the United Network for Organ Sharing registry.

Christoph Höner zu Siederdissen, Sven Pischke, Jerome Schlue, Katja Deterding, Timo Hellms, Susanne Schuler‐Lüttmann, Anke Schwarz, Michael P. Manns, Markus Cornberg, Heiner Wedemeyer – 24 December 2013

Frank Chen, Ann‐Bin Shyu, Benjamin Shneider – 23 December 2013