Neha A. Deshpande, Nathan T. James, Lauren M. Kucirka, Brian J. Boyarsky, Jacqueline M. Garonzik‐Wang, Andrew M. Cameron, Andrew L. Singer, Nabil N. Dagher, Dorry L. Segev – 17 February 2012 – Approximately 14,000 women of reproductive age are currently living in the United States after liver transplantation (LT), and another 500 undergo LT each year. Although LT improves reproductive function in women with advanced liver disease, the associated pregnancy outcomes and maternal‐fetal risks have not been quantified in a broad manner.

Sharon W. Kwan, Nicholas Fidelman, Elizabeth Ma, Robert K. Kerlan, Francis Y. Yao – 17 February 2012 – Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is one of the standard therapies for bridging patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to transplantation. This study was designed to determine which features on pre‐ and post‐TACE imaging are associated with tumor necrosis in pathological specimens. Records of 105 patients with 132 HCC lesions who underwent liver transplantation after TACE were retrospectively reviewed. In 70% of the nodules, >90% necrosis was achieved.

Xuefeng Xia, Wei Chen, Tao Ma, Guodong Xu, Hao Liu, Chao Liang, Xueli Bai, Yun Zhang, Yong He, Tingbo Liang – 17 February 2012 – Acute graft‐versus‐host disease is a serious and life‐threatening complication of liver transplantation (LT) that occurs in 1% to 2% of liver allograft recipients. It is associated with a high mortality rate, and effective therapies are lacking. In our established rat model, a relative decrease in regulatory T cells (Tregs) was previously shown to be associated with acute graft‐versus‐host disease after liver transplantation (LT‐aGVHD).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).