Sandra Westhaus, Dorothea Bankwitz, Stefanie Ernst, Katrin Rohrmann, Ilka Wappler, Clemens Agné, Maren Luchtefeld, Bernhard Schieffer, Christoph Sarrazin, Michael P. Manns, Thomas Pietschmann, Sandra Ciesek, Thomas von Hahn – 5 December 2012 – Oxidized low‐density lipoprotein (oxLDL) has been reported as an inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) cell entry, making it the only known component of human lipid metabolism with an antiviral effect on HCV.

Sachiyo Yoshio, Tatsuya Kanto, Shoko Kuroda, Tokuhiro Matsubara, Koyo Higashitani, Naruyasu Kakita, Hisashi Ishida, Naoki Hiramatsu, Hiroaki Nagano, Masaya Sugiyama, Kazumoto Murata, Takasuke Fukuhara, Yoshiharu Matsuura, Norio Hayashi, Masashi Mizokami, Tetsuo Takehara – 5 December 2012 – The polymorphisms in the interleukin (IL)‐28B (interferon‐lambda [IFN]‐λ3) gene are strongly associated with the efficacy of hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance.

David S. Goldberg, Amanda Camp, Alvaro Martinez‐Camacho, Lisa Forman, Brett Fortune, K. Rajender Reddy – 5 December 2012 – Patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are at increased risk for bacterial cholangitis because of biliary strictures and bile stasis. A subset of PSC patients suffer from repeated episodes of bacterial cholangitis, which can lead to frequent hospitalizations and impaired quality of life.

Stephen J. Polyak, Peter Ferenci, Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky – 5 December 2012

A. Sidney Barritt, Stephen A. Telloni, Clarence W. Potter, David A. Gerber, Paul H. Hayashi – 5 December 2012 – Prior studies have examined the impact of demographic factors on liver transplant outcomes. These factors may be surrogate markers for access to medical care. We investigated physician density in referred patients' hospital service areas (HSAs) as a factor in patients' probability of receiving a liver transplant. We performed a retrospective review of patients referred for liver transplantation from 2002 through 2010.

Rafael Bañares, Frederik Nevens, Fin Stolze Larsen, Rajiv Jalan, Agustín Albillos, Matthias Dollinger, Faouzi Saliba, Tilman Sauerbruch, Sebastian Klammt, Johann Ockenga, Albert Pares, Julia Wendon, Tanja Brünnler, Ludwig Kramer, Philippe Mathurin, Manuel de la Mata, Antonio Gasbarrini, Beat Müllhaupt, Alexander Wilmer, Wim Laleman, Martin Eefsen, Sambit Sen, Alexander Zipprich, Teresa Tenorio, Marco Pavesi, Hartmut H.‐J.

Woo Hyun Paik, Sang Hyub Lee, Ji Kon Ryu, Byeong Jun Song, Jaihwan Kim, Yong‐Tae Kim, Yong Bum Yoon – 5 December 2012 – Biliary cast syndrome (BCS) is an uncommon complication of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), so the long‐term treatment outcomes of BCS are not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long‐term treatment outcomes and prognosis of BCS after OLT. The medical records of 1097 patients who underwent OLT from January 2000 to September 2009 were reviewed.

Stephen J. Polyak, Peter Ferenci, Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky – 5 December 2012

Tetsuya Hosaka, Fumitaka Suzuki, Masahiro Kobayashi, Yuya Seko, Yusuke Kawamura, Hitomi Sezaki, Norio Akuta, Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Satoshi Saitoh, Yasuji Arase, Kenji Ikeda, Mariko Kobayashi, Hiromitsu Kumada – 5 December 2012 – Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Antiviral agents are thought to reduce HCC development, but agents such as lamivudine (LAM) have a high rate of drug resistance. We compared the incidence of HCC in 472 entecavir (ETV)‐treated patients and 1,143 nontreated HBV patients (control group).

Anja Meier, Stefan Mehrle, Thomas S. Weiss, Walter Mier, Stephan Urban – 5 December 2012 – Chronic infection with the human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a global health problem and a main cause of progressive liver diseases. HBV exhibits a narrow host range, replicating primarily in hepatocytes. Both host and hepatocyte specificity presumably involve specific receptor interactions on the target cell; however, direct evidence for this hypothesis is missing.