Tai‐Chung Tseng, Chun‐Jen Liu, Hung‐Chih Yang, Tung‐Hung Su, Chia‐Chi Wang, Chi‐Ling Chen, Cheng‐An Hsu, Stephanie Fang‐Tzu Kuo, Chen‐Hua Liu, Pei‐Jer Chen, Ding‐Shinn Chen, Jia‐Horng Kao – 3 September 2012 – Chronic hepatitis B patients with high viral loads are at increased risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In patients with low viral loads, higher hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels have been shown to predict HCC development.

Nedim Hadžić – 3 September 2012

Frank K. Huynh, Ursula H. Neumann, Ying Wang, Brian Rodrigues, Timothy J. Kieffer, Scott D. Covey – 3 September 2012 – Obesity is highly associated with dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanism behind this association is not completely understood. The hormone leptin may be a molecular link between obesity and dysregulation of lipid metabolism. Leptin can affect lipid metabolism independent of its well‐known effects on food intake and energy expenditure, but exactly how this occurs is ill‐defined.

Kari Nejak‐Bowen, Alexander Kikuchi, Satdarshan P.S. Monga – 3 September 2012 – Wnt/β‐catenin signaling plays an important role in hepatic homeostasis, especially in liver development, regeneration, and cancer, and loss of β‐catenin signaling is often associated with increased apoptosis. To elucidate how β‐catenin may be regulating hepatocyte survival, we investigated the susceptibility of β‐catenin conditional knockout (KO) mice and their wild‐type (WT) littermates to Fas and tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), two common pathways of hepatocyte apoptosis.

Christoph R. Werner, Daniel P. Egetemeyr, Ulrich M. Lauer, Silvio Nadalin, Alfred Königsrainer, Nisar P. Malek, Christoph P. Berg – 1 September 2012 – After liver transplantation (LT), the management of recurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections still remains a major challenge. In HCV genotype 1 patients not undergoing transplantation, the introduction of protease inhibitor (PI)–based regimens has increased the sustained virological response rate significantly.

Marianne Samyn – 1 September 2012 – Key Points

Junko Kato, Tomohiro Okamoto, Hiroyuki Motoyama, Ryosuke Uchiyama, Daniel Kirchhofer, Nico Van Rooijen, Hirayuki Enomoto, Shuhei Nishiguchi, Norifumi Kawada, Jiro Fujimoto, Hiroko Tsutsui – 30 August 2012 – Concanavalin A (Con A) treatment induces severe hepatitis in mice in a manner dependent on T cells, interferon (IFN)‐gamma, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Treatment with the anticoagulant heparin protects against hepatitis, despite healthy production of IFN‐γ and TNF. Here, we investigated molecular and cellular mechanisms for hypercoagulation‐mediated hepatitis.

Sudeep Tanwar, Paul M. Trembling, Indra N. Guha, Julie Parkes, Philip Kaye, Alastair D. Burt, Stephen D. Ryder, Guruprasad P. Aithal, Christopher P. Day, William M. Rosenberg – 29 August 2012 – Liver biopsy is the reference standard for the detection of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) within nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to identify a biomarker of NASH in patients without significant fibrosis. In all, 172 patients from two centers with biopsy‐proven NAFLD were included in this study.

Arvinder S. Soin – 28 August 2012 – Key Points

Katharine M. Irvine, Kate Schroder, Elizabeth E. Powell – 28 August 2012