Ilaria Barchetta, Simone Carotti, Giancarlo Labbadia, Umberto Vespasiani Gentilucci, Andrea Onetti Muda, Francesco Angelico, Gianfranco Silecchia, Frida Leonetti, Antonio Fraioli, Antonio Picardi, Sergio Morini, Maria Gisella Cavallo – 30 June 2012 – Evidence suggests an association between low serum 25‐hydroxy‐vitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] levels and the presence and prognosis of liver disease. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) has been widely detected in the liver, but its expression in the course of liver disease has never been investigated.

Yaseen M. Arabi, Saqib I. Dara, Ziad Memish, Abdulmajeed Al Abdulkareem, Hani M. Tamim, Nehad Al‐Shirawi, Joseph E. Parrillo, Peter Dodek, Stephen Lapinsky, Daniel Feinstein, Gordon Wood, Sandra Dial, Sergio Zanotti, Anand Kumar, for the Cooperative Antimicrobial Therapy of Septic Shock (CATSS) Database Research Group – 30 June 2012 – It is unclear whether practice‐related aspects of antimicrobial therapy contribute to the high mortality from septic shock among patients with cirrhosis.

Takashi Matsuzaka, Ayaka Atsumi, Rie Matsumori, Tang Nie, Haruna Shinozaki, Noriko Suzuki‐Kemuriyama, Motoko Kuba, Yoshimi Nakagawa, Kiyoaki Ishii, Masako Shimada, Kazuto Kobayashi, Shigeru Yatoh, Akimitsu Takahashi, Kazuhiro Takekoshi, Hirohito Sone, Naoya Yahagi, Hiroaki Suzuki, Soichiro Murata, Makoto Nakamuta, Nobuhiro Yamada, Hitoshi Shimano – 30 June 2012 – Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and an increased risk for liver cirrhosis and cancer.

Claudia Cicione, Chiara Degirolamo, Antonio Moschetta – 29 June 2012 – Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) 15/19 and 21 belong to the FGF endocrine subfamily. They present the intriguing characteristic to be transcribed and secreted in certain tissues and to act as hormones. The insulin‐mimetic properties of FGF21 and the regulatory role of FGF15/19 in bile acid and glucose homeostasis endorse these hormones as druggable targets in metabolic disorders.

Alejandro Gómez‐Aristizábal, Corey Ng, Joseph Ng, John E. Davies – 29 June 2012 – The inflammatory response to liver injury plays an important role in the onset of liver fibrosis, which may ultimately lead to liver failure. The attenuation of inflammation and hepatocyte rescue are, therefore, of the utmost importance for recovery. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from adult bone marrow have been shown to rescue hepatocyte function. Here we explore a more plentiful source of neonatal MSCs: human umbilical cord perivascular cells (HUCPVCs).

Pieter C. van Breugel, Eva I. Robert, Henrik Mueller, Adrien Decorsière, Fabien Zoulim, Olivier Hantz, Michel Strubin – 28 June 2012 – Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major risk factor for liver cancer development. HBV encodes the hepatitis B virus X (HBx) protein that promotes transcription of the viral episomal DNA genome by the host cell RNA polymerase II. Here we provide evidence that HBx accomplishes this task by a conserved and unusual mechanism.

Enrico Galmozzi, Stella De Nicola, Alessio Aghemo, Massimo Colombo – 28 June 2012

Janett Fischer, Stephan Böhm, Jacob George, Christoph Sarrazin, Thomas Berg – 28 June 2012

Jannis Kountouras, Christos Zavos, Georgia Deretzi, Elizabeth Vardaka, Marina Boziki, Emmanouel Gavalas, George Kouklakis, Panagiotis Katsinelos, Ioannis Venizelos, Christina Nikolaidou, Stergios A. Polyzos, Evaggelia Giartza‐Taxidou – 28 June 2012

German Soriano, Eva Román, Joan Córdoba – 28 June 2012