Sanjeev K. Akkina, Sumeet K. Asrani, Yi Peng, Peter Stock, W. Ray Kim, Ajay K. Israni – 28 January 2012 – Because of the shortage of deceased donor organs, transplant centers accept organs from marginal deceased donors, including older donors. Organ‐specific donor risk indices have been developed to predict graft survival with various combinations of donor and recipient characteristics. Here we review the kidney donor risk index (KDRI) and the liver donor risk index (LDRI) and compare and contrast their strengths, limitations, and potential uses.

Riccardo Superina – 28 January 2012

Margaret A. Scull, Alexander Ploss – 27 January 2012

Gennaro D'Amico, Fabio Tine – 27 January 2012

Luca Valenti, Anna Alisi, Valerio Nobili – 27 January 2012

Julia B. Goodnough, Emilio Ramos, Elizabeta Nemeth, Tomas Ganz – 25 January 2012 – The hepatic peptide hormone hepcidin controls the duodenal absorption of iron, its storage, and its systemic distribution. Hepcidin production is often insufficient in chronic hepatitis C and alcoholic liver disease, leading to hyperabsorption of iron and its accumulation in the liver. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) mediate hepatic regeneration after liver injury. We examined the effect of these growth factors on hepcidin synthesis by hepatocytes.

Jiyoung Lee, Sunmi Seok, Pengfei Yu, Kyungsu Kim, Zachary Smith, Marcelo Rivas‐Astroza, Sheng Zhong, Jongsook Kim Kemper – 25 January 2012 – The nuclear bile acid receptor, farnesoid X receptor (FXR), is an important transcriptional regulator of liver metabolism. Despite recent advances in understanding its functions, how FXR regulates genomic targets and whether the transcriptional regulation by FXR is altered in obesity remain largely unknown.

Pau Sancho‐Bru, José Altamirano, Daniel Rodrigo‐Torres, Mar Coll, Cristina Millán, Juan José Lozano, Rosa Miquel, Vicente Arroyo, Juan Caballería, Pere Ginès, Ramon Bataller – 25 January 2012 – Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is a severe condition developed in patients with underlying alcoholic liver disease. Ductular reaction has been associated with chronic alcohol consumption but there is no information regarding the extent of liver progenitor cell (LPC) proliferation in AH. The aim of this study was to investigate LPC markers in AH and its correlation with disease severity.

Nicolás Merchante, Antonio Rivero‐Juárez, Francisco Téllez, Dolores Merino, Maria José Ríos‐Villegas, Manuel Márquez‐Solero, Mohamed Omar, Juan Macías, Ángela Camacho, Montserrat Pérez‐Pérez, Jesús Gómez‐Mateos, Antonio Rivero, Juan Antonio Pineda, on behalf of the Grupo Andaluz para el Estudio de las Hepatitis Víricas (HEPAVIR) de la Sociedad Andaluza de Enfermedades Infecciosas (SAEI) – 25 January 2012 – Our aim was to assess the predictive value of liver stiffness (LS), measured by transient elastography (TE), for clinical outcome in human immunodeficiency virus / hepatitis C virus (HIV/

Angela L. Rasmussen, Nicolas Tchitchek, Nathan J. Susnow, Alexei L. Krasnoselsky, Deborah L. Diamond, Matthew M. Yeh, Sean C. Proll, Marcus J. Korth, Kathie‐Anne Walters, Sharon Lederer, Anne M. Larson, Robert L. Carithers, Arndt Benecke, Michael G. Katze – 25 January 2012 – Liver failure resulting from chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause for liver transplantation worldwide. Recurrent infection of the graft is universal in HCV patients after transplant and results in a rapid progression to severe fibrosis and end‐stage liver disease in one third of all patients.