Tzu‐Wei Wu, Hans Hsienhong Lin, Li‐Yu Wang – 1 August 2012 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health issue. Universal infantile hepatitis B (HB) vaccination is very efficacious. However, HBV infections among those immunized subjects have been reported. The long‐term efficacy of postnatal passive‐active HB vaccination in high‐risk subjects is not well explored. A total of 8,733 senior high school students who were born after July 1987 were assayed for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibodies to HBsAg (anti‐HBs).

Heng Lin, Jun Yan, Ziyan Wang, Fang Hua, Jiaojiao Yu, Wei Sun, Ke Li, Hong Liu, Hongzhen Yang, Qi Lv, Jianfei Xue, Zhuo‐Wei Hu – 1 August 2012 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complication at the endstage of chronic inflammatory liver diseases with dismal prognosis. Targeting of Toll‐like receptor (TLR) 2 attenuates tumor metastases; we hypothesized that blocking TLR2 might also play a crucial role in reducing hepatocarcinogenesis. Surprisingly, we found that the genetic deletion of TLR2 increased susceptibility to diethylnitrosamine (DEN), a genotoxic carcinogen that can induce HCC.

Xiaofeng Sun, Lihui Han, Pankaj Seth, Shu Bian, Linglin Li, Eva Csizmadia, Wolfgang G. Junger, Moritz Schmelzle, Anny Usheva, Elliot B. Tapper, Gyorgy Baffy, Vikas P. Sukhatme, Yan Wu, Simon C. Robson – 1 August 2012 – Liver cancer is associated with chronic inflammation, which is linked to immune dysregulation, disordered metabolism, and aberrant cell proliferation. Nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase‐1; (CD39/ENTPD1) is an ectonucleotidase that regulates extracellular nucleotide/nucleoside concentrations by scavenging nucleotides to ultimately generate adenosine.

Geoffrey W. McCaughan – 1 August 2012 – Key Points

Francesco D'Amico, Alessandro Vitale, Donatella Piovan, Alessandra Bertacco, Rafael Ramirez Morales, Anna Chiara Frigo, Domenico Bassi, Pasquale Bonsignore, Enrico Gringeri, Michele Valmasoni, Greta Garbo, Enrico Lodo, Francesco Enrico D'Amico, Michele Scopelliti, Amedeo Carraro, Martina Gambato, Alberto Brolese, Giacomo Zanus, Daniele Neri, Umberto Cillo – 1 August 2012 – Antioxidant agents have the potential to reduce ischemia/reperfusion damage to organs for liver transplantation (LT).

Mary Ann Simpson, Elizabeth A. Pomfret – 1 August 2012 – Key Points

Holger Gohlke, Birte Schmitz, Annika Sommerfeld, Roland Reinehr, Dieter Häussinger – 1 August 2012 – Ursodeoxycholic acid, which in vivo is converted to its taurine conjugate tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDC), is a mainstay for the treatment of cholestatic liver disease. Earlier work showed that TUDC exerts its choleretic properties in the perfused rat liver in an α5β1 integrin‐mediated way. However, the molecular basis of TUDC‐sensing in the liver is unknown.

Jennifer E. Lambert, Vincent G. Bain, Edmond A. Ryan, Alan B.R. Thomson, Michael T. Clandinin – 1 August 2012 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) exerts a profound influence on host lipid metabolism. It has been suggested that the synthesis of both fatty acids (FA) and cholesterol is dysregulated in HCV but this has not been directly quantified in humans. The purpose of this study was to measure lipogenesis and cholesterol synthesis using stable isotopes in patients with HCV (n = 5) and healthy control (n = 9) subjects recruited from the University of Alberta hospital.

M. Behnan Sahin – 1 August 2012

Ying‐Ying Yang, Yi‐Tsau Huang, Tzung‐Yan Lee, Che‐Chang Chan, Yi‐Chen Yeh, Kuei‐Chuan Lee, Han‐Chieh Lin – 30 July 2012 – During liver transplantation, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) aggravates ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury by activating various kinases and subsequently releasing cytokines and chemokines. Nonetheless, the effect of the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib on IR liver injury in rats with NASH has never been explored. Our study was designed to determine this effect and associated mechanisms in NASH rats.