Zeenat Safdar, Sonja Bartolome, Norman Sussman – 4 June 2012 – Portopulmonary hypertension (POPH) is a serious complication of cirrhosis that is associated with mortality beyond that predicted by the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) may be initiated by pulmonary vasoconstriction, altered levels of circulating mediators, or shear stress, and can eventually lead to the classic vascular remodeling (plexiform lesion) that characterizes POPH.

Max A. Cayo, Jun Cai, Ann DeLaForest, Fallon K. Noto, Masato Nagaoka, Brian S. Clark, Ross F. Collery, Karim Si‐Tayeb, Stephen A. Duncan – 31 May 2012 – Elevated levels of low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C) in plasma are a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide. Genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 95 loci that associate with control of lipid/cholesterol metabolism.

Carlo Spirli, Carola M. Morell, Luigi Locatelli, Stefano Okolicsanyi, Cecilia Ferrero, Amy K. Kim, Luca Fabris, Romina Fiorotto, Mario Strazzabosco – 31 May 2012 – Mutations in polycystins are a cause of polycystic liver disease. In polycystin‐2 (PC2)‐defective mice, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA)‐dependent activation of the Rat Sarcoma (Ras)/rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (Raf)/mitogen signal‐regulated kinase–extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 pathway stimulates the growth of liver cysts.

Kurt Zatloukal – 29 May 2012

Kymberly D. Watt, Ross Dierkhising, Julie K. Heimbach, Michael R. Charlton – 29 May 2012 – By analyzing 26,414 patients [12,589 with hepatitis C virus (HCV)] in the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients database, we sought to determine comparative risk factors (including primary immunosuppression) predictive of death and graft loss among patients with HCV and patients without HCV.

Emily Rothbaum Perito, Audrey Lau, Sue Rhee, John P. Roberts, Philip Rosenthal – 29 May 2012 – During long‐term follow‐up, 18% to 67% of pediatric liver transplant recipients are overweight or obese, with rates varying by age and pretransplant weight status. A similar prevalence of posttransplant obesity has been seen in adults. Adults also develop posttransplant metabolic syndrome and, consequently, cardiovascular disease at rates that exceed the rates in age‐ and sex‐matched populations.

Emilio Fábrega, Blanca Sampedro, Joaquín Cabezas, Fernando Casafont, Miguel Ángel Mieses, Irene Moraleja, Javier Crespo, Fernando Pons‐Romero – 29 May 2012 – A patient receiving a liver graft needs to be treated with immunosuppressive drugs to avoid rejection. These kinds of drugs predispose the patient to the reactivation of latent infections such as tuberculosis (TB). Therefore, it is necessary to establish treatment regimens to prevent this.

Colleen L. Jay, Anton I. Skaro, Daniela P. Ladner, Edward Wang, Vadim Lyuksemburg, Yaojen Chang, Hongmei Xu, Sandhya Talakokkla, Neehar Parikh, Jane L. Holl, Gordon B. Hazen, Michael M. Abecassis – 29 May 2012 – Due to organ scarcity and wait‐list mortality, transplantation of donation after cardiac death (DCD) livers has increased. However, the group of patients benefiting from DCD liver transplantation is unknown. We studied the comparative effectiveness of DCD versus donation after brain death (DBD) liver transplantation.

Banff Working Group on Liver Allograft Pathology, Anthony Demetris – 29 May 2012 – Obstacles to morbidity‐free long‐term survival after liver transplantation (LT) include complications of immunosuppression (IS), recurrence of the original disease and malignancies, and unexplained chronic hepatitis and graft fibrosis. Many programs attempt to minimize chronic exposure to IS by reducing dosages and stopping steroids. A few programs have successfully weaned a highly select group of recipients from all IS without apparent adverse consequences, but long‐term follow‐up is limited.

Elisa J. Gordon, Daniela P. Ladner, Talia Baker – 29 May 2012