Ashley M. Lakner, Nury M. Steuerwald, Tracy L. Walling, Sriparna Ghosh, Ting Li, Iain H. McKillop, Mark W. Russo, Herbert L. Bonkovsky, Laura W. Schrum – 25 January 2012 – Hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation is a pivotal event in initiation and progression of hepatic fibrosis and a major contributor to collagen deposition driven by transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β). MicroRNAs (miRs), small noncoding RNAs modulating messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression, have emerged as key regulatory molecules in chronic liver disease.

Linkang Zhou, Li Xu, Jing Ye, De Li, Wenshan Wang, Xuanhe Li, Lizhen Wu, Hui Wang, Feifei Guan, Peng Li – 25 January 2012 – High levels of dietary saturated fat have been closely associated with the development of hepatic steatosis, but the factors that mediate this process remain elusive. Here, we observed that the level of cell death‐inducing DNA fragmentation factor‐alpha‐like effector a (Cidea) expression was highly correlated with the severity of hepatic steatosis in humans.

Teresa Pollicino, Giuliana Amaddeo, Agnese Restuccia, Giuseppina Raffa, Angela Alibrandi, Giuseppina Cutroneo, Angelo Favaloro, Sergio Maimone, Giovanni Squadrito, Giovanni Raimondo – 23 January 2012 – To evaluate whether hepatitis B virus (HBV) preS/S gene variability has any impact on serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels and to analyze the replication capacity of naturally occurring preS/S variants, sera from 40 untreated patients with HBV‐related chronic liver disease (hepatitis B e antigen [HBeAg]‐positive, n = 11; HBeAg‐negative, n = 29) were virologically characterized.

Wen Wen, Jin Ding, Wen Sun, Jing Fu, Yao Chen, Kun Wu, Beifang Ning, Tao Han, Lei Huang, Cheng Chen, Dong Xie, Zhong Li, Gensheng Feng, Mengchao Wu, Weifen Xie, Hongyang Wang – 23 January 2012 – Cyclin G1 deficiency is associated with reduced incidence of carcinogen‐induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its function in HCC progression remains obscure. We report a critical role of cyclin G1 in HCC metastasis. Elevated expression of cyclin G1 was detected in HCCs (60.6%), and its expression levels were even higher in portal vein tumor thrombus.

Christian Toso, Elise Dupuis‐Lozeron, Pietro Majno, Thierry Berney, Norman M. Kneteman, Thomas Perneger, Philippe Morel, Gilles Mentha, Christophe Combescure – 23 January 2012 – In many countries, the allocation of liver grafts is based on the Model of End‐stage Liver Disease (MELD) score and the use of exception points for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). With this strategy, HCC patients have easier access to transplantation than non‐HCC ones.

Melissa R. Miller, Ronald J. Sokol, Michael R. Narkewicz, Marci K. Sontag – 23 January 2012 – Severe liver disease affects 4.5% to 10% of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) and is the third‐leading cause of death. Liver transplantation (LT) is an accepted therapy, but the effects of liver disease and LT on pulmonary function in patients with CF are controversial. Our aim was to characterize changes in pulmonary function in LT patients with CF.

Christophe Corpechot, Fabrice Carrat, Armelle Poujol‐Robert, Farid Gaouar, Dominique Wendum, Olivier Chazouillères, Raoul Poupon – 23 January 2012 – The development of liver fibrosis markers in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is needed to facilitate the assessment of its progression and the effectiveness of new therapies. Here, we investigated the potential usefulness of transient elastography (TE) in the noninvasive evaluation of liver fibrosis stage and disease progression in PBC.

Komal Ramani, Maria Lauda Tomasi – 23 January 2012 – Methionine adenosyltransferases (MATs) are critical enzymes that catalyze the formation of the methyl donor S‐adenosyl methionine (SAM). The MAT2A gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit α2, is induced in dedifferentiated liver. We previously demonstrated that MAT2A expression is enhanced in activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and that silencing this gene reduces HSC activation. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanisms responsible for the transcriptional regulation of the MAT2A gene in HSCs.

Claudia D. Fuchs, Thierry Claudel, Pooja Kumari, Guenter Haemmerle, Marion J. Pollheimer, Tatjana Stojakovic, Hubert Scharnagl, Emina Halilbasic, Judith Gumhold, Dagmar Silbert, Harald Koefeler, Michael Trauner – 23 January 2012 – Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by triglyceride (TG) accumulation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.

Ning Li, Lei Zhang, Liangwei Chen, Wenfeng Feng, Yinfeng Xu, Feng Chen, Xiaohong Liu, Zhi Chen, Wei Liu – 23 January 2012 – Human MxA, an interferon‐inducible cytoplasmic dynamin‐like GTPase, possesses antiviral activity against multiple RNA viruses. Recently, MxA has also been demonstrated to have activity against the hepatitis B virus (HBV), a well‐known DNA virus responsible for acute and chronic liver disease in humans. We investigated the molecular mechanism for the anti‐HBV activity of MxA.