John D. Ryan, Sandro Altamura, Emma Devitt, Sarah Mullins, Matthew W. Lawless, Martina U. Muckenthaler, John Crowe – 15 February 2012 – Pegylated interferon‐α (PEG‐IFN‐α) forms an integral part of the current treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. PEG‐IFN‐α suppresses HCV production by augmenting the innate antiviral immune response. Recent studies have reported the induction of hepcidin, the iron regulatory hormone, by IFN‐α in vitro.

Shufeng Liu, Kevin D. McCormick, Wentao Zhao, Ting Zhao, Daping Fan, Tianyi Wang – 15 February 2012 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) entry is a multiple‐step process involving a number of host factors and hence represents a promising target for new antiviral drug development. In search of novel inhibitors of HCV infection, we found that a human apolipoprotein E (apoE) peptide, hEP, containing both a receptor binding fragment and a lipid binding fragment of apoE specifically blocked the entry of cell culture grown HCV (HCVcc) at submicromolar concentrations.

Natalia Freitas, Jessica Salisse, Celso Cunha, Ilia Toshkov, Stephan Menne, Severin O. Gudima – 15 February 2012 – Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a natural subviral agent of human hepatitis B virus (HBV). HDV enhances liver damage during concomitant infection with HBV. The molecular pathogenesis of HDV infection remains poorly understood. To advance our understanding of the relationship between HDV infection and liver cancer, it was determined whether HDV could infect in vivo the cells of hepadnavirus‐induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Kaname Yoshizawa, Akihiro Matsumoto, Tetsuya Ichijo, Takeji Umemura, Satoru Joshita, Michiharu Komatsu, Naoki Tanaka, Eiji Tanaka, Masao Ota, Yoshihiko Katsuyama, Kendo Kiyosawa, Masanori Abe, Morikazu Onji – 15 February 2012 – The long‐term outcome of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) in Japan has not been well‐defined. The aim of this study was to clarify the outcome of this disease over a long follow‐up period compared with that of the general Japanese population as well as that among patients. A total of 203 AIH patients were enrolled for a mean follow‐up period of 131 months.

Veerle Bieghs, Patrick J. van Gorp, Sofie M.A. Walenbergh, Marion J. Gijbels, Fons Verheyen, Wim A. Buurman, David E. Briles, Marten H. Hofker, Christoph J. Binder, Ronit Shiri‐Sverdlov – 15 February 2012 – Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is characterized by hepatic lipid accumulation combined with inflammation, which can ultimately progress into cirrhosis. Recently, we demonstrated that deletion of scavenger receptors (SRs) CD36 and SR‐A in hematopoietic cells reduced hepatic inflammation.

Charalambos Gustav Antoniades, Alberto Quaglia, Leonie S. Taams, Ragai R. Mitry, Munther Hussain, Robin Abeles, Lucia A. Possamai, Matthew Bruce, Mark McPhail, Christopher Starling, Bart Wagner, Adrian Barnardo, Sabine Pomplun, Georg Auzinger, William Bernal, Nigel Heaton, Diego Vergani, Mark R. Thursz, Julia Wendon – 15 February 2012 – Acetaminophen‐induced acute liver failure (AALF) is associated with innate immunity activation, which contributes to the severity of hepatic injury and clinical outcome.

Michaela Kozakova, Carlo Palombo, Marco Paterni Eng, Jacqueline Dekker, Allan Flyvbjerg, Asimina Mitrakou, Amalia Gastaldelli, Ele Ferrannini, ; and the RISC Investigators – 15 February 2012 – An association between fatty liver and carotid atherosclerosis has been established; however, it is not clear whether this relationship is a consequence of shared conventional risk factors or whether it is determined by specific circulating factors originating from liver or adipose tissue.

Amika Singla, David S. Moons, Natasha T. Snider, Elizabeth R. Wagenmaker, V. Bernadene Jayasundera, M. Bishr Omary – 15 February 2012 – Mallory‐Denk bodies (MDBs) are hepatocyte inclusions commonly seen in steatohepatitis. They are induced in mice by feeding 3,5‐diethoxycarbonyl‐1,4‐dihydrocollidine (DDC) for 12 weeks, which also causes porphyrin accumulation. Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is caused by mutations in ferrochelatase (fch), and a fraction of EPP patients develop liver disease that is phenocopied in Fechm1Pas mutant (fch/fch) mice, which have an inactivating fch mutation.

Itziar Otano, Lester Suarez, Javier Dotor, Manuela Gonzalez‐Aparicio, Julien Crettaz, Cristina Olagüe, Africal Vales, Jose Ignacio Riezu, Esther Larrea, Francisco Borras, Alberto Benito, Ruben Hernandez‐Alcoceba, Stephan Menne, Jesús Prieto, Gloria González‐Aseguinolaza – 15 February 2012 – Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a critical role in the modulation of immune responses to viral antigens in chronic viral hepatitis. Woodchucks (Marmota monax) infected with the woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) represent the best animal model for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

Willis C. Maddrey – 13 February 2012