Holger Gohlke, Birte Schmitz, Annika Sommerfeld, Roland Reinehr, Dieter Häussinger – 1 August 2012 – Ursodeoxycholic acid, which in vivo is converted to its taurine conjugate tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDC), is a mainstay for the treatment of cholestatic liver disease. Earlier work showed that TUDC exerts its choleretic properties in the perfused rat liver in an α5β1 integrin‐mediated way. However, the molecular basis of TUDC‐sensing in the liver is unknown.

Mary Ann Simpson, Elizabeth A. Pomfret – 1 August 2012 – Key Points

Francesco D'Amico, Alessandro Vitale, Donatella Piovan, Alessandra Bertacco, Rafael Ramirez Morales, Anna Chiara Frigo, Domenico Bassi, Pasquale Bonsignore, Enrico Gringeri, Michele Valmasoni, Greta Garbo, Enrico Lodo, Francesco Enrico D'Amico, Michele Scopelliti, Amedeo Carraro, Martina Gambato, Alberto Brolese, Giacomo Zanus, Daniele Neri, Umberto Cillo – 1 August 2012 – Antioxidant agents have the potential to reduce ischemia/reperfusion damage to organs for liver transplantation (LT).

Geoffrey W. McCaughan – 1 August 2012 – Key Points

Xiaofeng Sun, Lihui Han, Pankaj Seth, Shu Bian, Linglin Li, Eva Csizmadia, Wolfgang G. Junger, Moritz Schmelzle, Anny Usheva, Elliot B. Tapper, Gyorgy Baffy, Vikas P. Sukhatme, Yan Wu, Simon C. Robson – 1 August 2012 – Liver cancer is associated with chronic inflammation, which is linked to immune dysregulation, disordered metabolism, and aberrant cell proliferation. Nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase‐1; (CD39/ENTPD1) is an ectonucleotidase that regulates extracellular nucleotide/nucleoside concentrations by scavenging nucleotides to ultimately generate adenosine.

Heng Lin, Jun Yan, Ziyan Wang, Fang Hua, Jiaojiao Yu, Wei Sun, Ke Li, Hong Liu, Hongzhen Yang, Qi Lv, Jianfei Xue, Zhuo‐Wei Hu – 1 August 2012 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complication at the endstage of chronic inflammatory liver diseases with dismal prognosis. Targeting of Toll‐like receptor (TLR) 2 attenuates tumor metastases; we hypothesized that blocking TLR2 might also play a crucial role in reducing hepatocarcinogenesis. Surprisingly, we found that the genetic deletion of TLR2 increased susceptibility to diethylnitrosamine (DEN), a genotoxic carcinogen that can induce HCC.

Tzu‐Wei Wu, Hans Hsienhong Lin, Li‐Yu Wang – 1 August 2012 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health issue. Universal infantile hepatitis B (HB) vaccination is very efficacious. However, HBV infections among those immunized subjects have been reported. The long‐term efficacy of postnatal passive‐active HB vaccination in high‐risk subjects is not well explored. A total of 8,733 senior high school students who were born after July 1987 were assayed for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibodies to HBsAg (anti‐HBs).

Marc L. Weber, Hassan N. Ibrahim, John R. Lake – 30 July 2012 – Major progress has been made in the field of liver transplantation since the first procedure was performed nearly 50 years ago. Despite these improvements, renal dysfunction before and after liver transplantation remains a major complicating factor associated with increased health care costs, morbidity, and mortality. Creatinine‐based estimates of renal function are inaccurate in the setting of end‐stage liver disease and often lead to underdiagnosis and late intervention.

Zhenhua Hu, Wei Wang, Zhiwei Li, Sunyi Ye, Shu‐Sen Zheng – 30 July 2012 – Salvage liver transplantation (SLT), or liver transplantation after liver resection (LR), has been performed after primary LR for many years. However, the true outcomes and risks of SLT versus primary liver transplantation (PLT) remain unclear. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis to evaluate the survival rate of SLT recipients and the incidence of postoperative complications. Among 2799 screened references, 7 eligible studies were identified.

Ying‐Ying Yang, Yi‐Tsau Huang, Tzung‐Yan Lee, Che‐Chang Chan, Yi‐Chen Yeh, Kuei‐Chuan Lee, Han‐Chieh Lin – 30 July 2012 – During liver transplantation, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) aggravates ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury by activating various kinases and subsequently releasing cytokines and chemokines. Nonetheless, the effect of the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib on IR liver injury in rats with NASH has never been explored. Our study was designed to determine this effect and associated mechanisms in NASH rats.