A. Sidney Barritt, Stephen A. Telloni, Clarence W. Potter, David A. Gerber, Paul H. Hayashi – 5 December 2012 – Prior studies have examined the impact of demographic factors on liver transplant outcomes. These factors may be surrogate markers for access to medical care. We investigated physician density in referred patients' hospital service areas (HSAs) as a factor in patients' probability of receiving a liver transplant. We performed a retrospective review of patients referred for liver transplantation from 2002 through 2010.

Rafael Bañares, Frederik Nevens, Fin Stolze Larsen, Rajiv Jalan, Agustín Albillos, Matthias Dollinger, Faouzi Saliba, Tilman Sauerbruch, Sebastian Klammt, Johann Ockenga, Albert Pares, Julia Wendon, Tanja Brünnler, Ludwig Kramer, Philippe Mathurin, Manuel de la Mata, Antonio Gasbarrini, Beat Müllhaupt, Alexander Wilmer, Wim Laleman, Martin Eefsen, Sambit Sen, Alexander Zipprich, Teresa Tenorio, Marco Pavesi, Hartmut H.‐J.

Woo Hyun Paik, Sang Hyub Lee, Ji Kon Ryu, Byeong Jun Song, Jaihwan Kim, Yong‐Tae Kim, Yong Bum Yoon – 5 December 2012 – Biliary cast syndrome (BCS) is an uncommon complication of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), so the long‐term treatment outcomes of BCS are not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long‐term treatment outcomes and prognosis of BCS after OLT. The medical records of 1097 patients who underwent OLT from January 2000 to September 2009 were reviewed.

Stephen J. Polyak, Peter Ferenci, Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky – 5 December 2012

Tetsuya Hosaka, Fumitaka Suzuki, Masahiro Kobayashi, Yuya Seko, Yusuke Kawamura, Hitomi Sezaki, Norio Akuta, Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Satoshi Saitoh, Yasuji Arase, Kenji Ikeda, Mariko Kobayashi, Hiromitsu Kumada – 5 December 2012 – Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Antiviral agents are thought to reduce HCC development, but agents such as lamivudine (LAM) have a high rate of drug resistance. We compared the incidence of HCC in 472 entecavir (ETV)‐treated patients and 1,143 nontreated HBV patients (control group).

Anja Meier, Stefan Mehrle, Thomas S. Weiss, Walter Mier, Stephan Urban – 5 December 2012 – Chronic infection with the human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a global health problem and a main cause of progressive liver diseases. HBV exhibits a narrow host range, replicating primarily in hepatocytes. Both host and hepatocyte specificity presumably involve specific receptor interactions on the target cell; however, direct evidence for this hypothesis is missing.

Hai‐Xiang Sun, Yang Xu, Xin‐Rong Yang, Wei‐Min Wang, Haibo Bai, Ruo‐Yu Shi, Suresh K. Nayar, Ranjan P. Devbhandari, Yi‐zhou He, Qingfeng Zhu, Yun‐Fan Sun, Bo Hu, Mehtab Khan, Robert A. Anders, Jia Fan – 5 December 2012 – Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are activated in many tumors and show either promoter or suppressor activity, depending on tumor cell biology and background. However, the role of HIF member HIF‐2α remains unclear in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

5 December 2012

Yuan Chen, Xiulong Song, Leila Valanejad, Alexander Vasilenko, Vijay More, Xi Qiu, Weikang Chen, Yurong Lai, Angela Slitt, Matthew Stoner, Bingfang Yan, Ruitang Deng – 5 December 2012 – As a canalicular bile acid effluxer, the bile salt export pump (BSEP) plays a vital role in maintaining bile acid homeostasis. BSEP deficiency leads to severe cholestasis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in young children. Regardless of the etiology, chronic inflammation is the common pathological process for HCC development.

Augusto Villanueva, Josep M. Llovet – 4 December 2012