Shunsuke Muramatsu, Shinji Tanaka, Kaoru Mogushi, Rama Adikrisna, Arihiro Aihara, Daisuke Ban, Takanori Ochiai, Takumi Irie, Atsushi Kudo, Noriaki Nakamura, Koh Nakayama, Hiroshi Tanaka, Shoji Yamaoka, Shigeki Arii – 27 February 2013 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies because of recurrence and/or metastasis even after curative resection. Emerging evidence suggests that tumor metastasis and recurrence might be driven by a small subpopulation of stemness cells, so‐called cancer stem cells (CSCs).

Umberto Arena, Monica Lupsor Platon, Cristina Stasi, Stefania Moscarella, Alì Assarat, Giorgio Bedogni, Valeria Piazzolla, Radu Badea, Giacomo Laffi, Fabio Marra, Alessandra Mangia, Massimo Pinzani – 27 February 2013 – Transient elastography (TE) is increasingly employed in clinical practice for the noninvasive detection of tissue fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), and particularly chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐related hepatitis.

Sheida Moghadamrad, Matteo Montani, Rosemarie Weimann, Andrea De Gottardi – 27 February 2013 – Cholestasis with normal gamma glutamyl transferase characterizes functional deficiencies in the gene ABCB11, which encodes the bile salt export pump (BSEP), a liver‐specific adenosine triphosphate (ATP)‐binding cassette transporter. Here we report the case of a patient presenting with features of benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis associated with a heterozygous mutation in the ABCB11 gene.

Umberto Arena, Monica Lupsor Platon, Cristina Stasi, Stefania Moscarella, Alì Assarat, Giorgio Bedogni, Valeria Piazzolla, Radu Badea, Giacomo Laffi, Fabio Marra, Alessandra Mangia, Massimo Pinzani – 27 February 2013 – Transient elastography (TE) is increasingly employed in clinical practice for the noninvasive detection of tissue fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), and particularly chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐related hepatitis.

Albert C. Y. Chan, See Ching Chan, Kenneth S. H. Chok, Tan To Cheung, Dai Wing Chiu, Ronnie T. P. Poon, Sheung Tat Fan, Chung Mau Lo – 27 February 2013 – The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of salvage liver transplantation (SLT), repeated hepatic resection (RR), and repeated radiofrequency ablation (rRFA) for patients with postoperative tumor recurrence. The optimal treatment strategy for patients with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear.

M. Susan Mandell, Elizabeth A. Pomfret, Randall Steadman, Ryutaro Hirose, David J. Reich, Roman Schumann, Ann Walia – 27 February 2013 – A new Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing bylaw recommends that all centers appoint a director of liver transplant anesthesia with a uniform set of criteria. We obtained survey data from the Liver Transplant Anesthesia Consortium so that we could compare existing criteria for a director in the United States with the current recommendations.

Peixiang Lan, Cai Zhang, Qiuju Han, Jian Zhang, Zhigang Tian – 27 February 2013 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) persistence aggravates hepatic immunotolerance, leading to the failure of cell‐intrinsic type I interferon and antiviral response, but whether and how HBV‐induced hepatocyte‐intrinsic tolerance influences systemic adaptive immunity has never been reported, which is becoming the major obstacle for chronic HBV therapy.

Stuart Falconer, James J. Powell, Gabriel C. Oniscu – 27 February 2013

Edward J. Gane, Scott Patterson, Simone I. Strasser, Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Peter W. Angus – 27 February 2013 – Without effective prophylaxis, liver transplantation for hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related liver disease is frequently complicated by severe and rapidly progressive HBV recurrence. Combination prophylaxis with hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) and lamivudine (LAM) reduces long‐term recurrence rates below 10%; however, HBIG is costly and inconvenient to administer.

Gabriella Cordone, Fabiana Zingone, Giuseppe Cardillo, Vincenzo Martinelli, Novella Pugliese, Lucienne Pellegrini, Carolina Ciacci, Gianpaolo Parrilli – 27 February 2013 – The prevalence and causes of erythrocytosis after liver transplantation have never been studied, even though this condition is known to predispose patients to thrombosis leading to graft failure or death. Erythrocytosis after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) can be defined as an increase in the red cell mass >125% in patients without a pre‐OLT history of this condition.