Pascal Lapierre, Kathie Béland, Roland Yang, Fernando Alvarez – 22 August 2012 – Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is characterized by a loss of immunological tolerance to hepatocytes. Patients respond well to immunosuppression but progression to endstage liver disease occurs in 10%‐20% of cases, leading to liver transplantation. Using a murine model of type 2 AIH, we identified susceptibility factors for autoimmune hepatitis and attempted to restore immunological tolerance to liver autoantigens.

Patrizia Loi, Qing Yuan, David Torres, Sandrine Delbauve, Marie‐Aline Laute, Marie‐Claude Lalmand, Michel Pétein, Stanislas Goriely, Michel Goldman, Véronique Flamand – 22 August 2012 – Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) is an important transcription factor in Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling, a pathway that is known to play a critical role in liver ischemia‐reperfusion injury. In order to decipher the involvement of IRF3 in this setting, we first compared the intensity of hepatic lesions in IRF3‐deficient versus wildtype mice.

Fahad M. Khan, Arathi Rajendra Komarla, Paulo G. Mendoza, Henry C. Bodenheimer, Neil D. Theise – 22 August 2012 – Liver biopsy is important for diagnosing primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Prior investigations suggest that immunostaining for biliary keratin 19 (K19) may show the earliest changes suspicious for PBC, namely, loss of the canals of Hering (CoH).

Elvire Beleoken, Rodolphe Sobesky, Jean‐Pierre Le Caer, François Le Naour, Mylène Sebagh, Nicolas Moniaux, Bruno Roche, Mohammad Zahid Mustafa, Catherine Guettier, Catherine Johanet, Didier Samuel, Jean‐Henri Bouhris, Jean‐Charles Duclos‐Vallee, Eric Ballot – 22 August 2012 – The development of potentially severe non‐graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) hepatitis resembling autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) has been reported after bone marrow transplantation (BMT).

Manav Wadhawan, Subash Gupta, Neerav Goyal, Karisangal R. Vasudevan, Kausar Makki, Reetika Dawar, Raman Sardana, Nand Lal, Ajay Kumar – 18 August 2012 – It is believed that antiviral prophylaxis decreases the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation and disease. There are few data regarding weekly assays for CMV DNA after transplantation and the subsequent management of CMV. Here we report a cohort of living related liver transplantation (LRLT) patients who were treated for invasive CMV disease or for CMV infections if they were receiving steroids for rejection.

John Paul Roberts – 18 August 2012 – Key Points

Akemi Takata, Motoyuki Otsuka, Takeshi Yoshikawa, Takahiro Kishikawa, Yohko Hikiba, Shuntaro Obi, Tadashi Goto, Young Jun Kang, Shin Maeda, Haruhiko Yoshida, Masao Omata, Hiroshi Asahara, Kazuhiko Koike – 17 August 2012 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that regulate the expression of specific target genes. While deregulated miRNA expression levels have been detected in many tumors, whether miRNA functional impairment is also involved in carcinogenesis remains unknown.

Lieke M. van der Velden, Misha V. Golynskiy, Ingrid T. G. W. Bijsmans, Saskia W. C. van Mil, Leo W. J. Klomp, Maarten Merkx, Stan F.J. van de Graaf – 17 August 2012 – Bile acids are pivotal for the absorption of dietary lipids and vitamins and function as important signaling molecules in metabolism. Here, we describe a genetically encoded fluorescent bile acid sensor (BAS) that allows for spatiotemporal monitoring of bile acid transport in single living cells.

Massimiliano Paganelli, Kai Dallmeier, Omar Nyabi, Isabelle Scheers, Benoît Kabamba, Johan Neyts, Patrick Goubau, Mustapha Najimi, Etienne M. Sokal – 17 August 2012 – The role of cell differentiation state on hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication has been well demonstrated, whereas how it determines cell susceptibility to HBV entry is far less understood. We previously showed that umbilical cord matrix stem cells (UCMSC) can be differentiated towards hepatocyte‐like cells in vitro.

Yuanyuan Guo, Wendie Wang, Jing Wang, Jiannan Feng, Qingyang Wang, Jianfeng Jin, Ming Lv, Xinying Li, Yan Li, Yuanfang Ma, Beifen Shen, Jiyan Zhang – 17 August 2012 – c‐Jun N‐terminal protein kinase (JNK) is a member of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) superfamily. The activation of JNK is mediated by sequential protein phosphorylation through a MAPK module, namely, MAPK kinase kinase (MAP3K or MEKK) → MAPK kinase (MAP2K or MKK) → MAPK.