Jeremy S. Duffield – 26 November 2011

Supatsri Sethasine, Dhanpat Jain, Roberto J. Groszmann, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao – 23 November 2011 – We have previously shown, in a semiquantitative analysis of liver biopsies showing cirrhosis, that thickness of fibrous septa separating cirrhotic nodules and small size of cirrhotic nodules correlated independently with portal pressure (as determined by the hepatic venous pressure gradient; HVPG) and were independent predictors of the presence of clinically significant portal hypertension (PH).

Katrin Neumann, Nils Kruse, Balint Szilagyi, Ulrike Erben, Christine Rudolph, Anne Flach, Martin Zeitz, Alf Hamann, Katja Klugewitz – 23 November 2011 – Gut‐activated T cells migrating into the liver can cause extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease. T cells acquire a gut‐homing phenotype dependent on retinoic acid (RA) provided by intestinal dendritic cells (DC). We investigated whether liver antigen‐presenting cells can induce gut tropism supporting an enterohepatic lymphocyte circulation.

Seanthan Senthilnathan, Khairuddin Memon, Robert J. Lewandowski, Laura Kulik, Mary F. Mulcahy, Ahsun Riaz, Frank H. Miller, Vahid Yaghmai, Paul Nikolaidis, Edward Wang, Talia Baker, Michael Abecassis, Al B. Benson, Reed A. Omary, Riad Salem – 23 November 2011 – Although most cancers are considered predominantly systemic processes, this may not hold true for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The literature regarding patterns of progression of HCC (local versus systemic) has been relatively sparse.

Liping Liu, Govardhana Rao Yannam, Taichiro Nishikawa, Toshiyuki Yamamoto, Hesham Basma, Ryotaro Ito, Masaki Nagaya, Joyeeta Dutta‐Moscato, Donna B. Stolz, Fenghai Duan, Klaus H. Kaestner, Yoram Vodovotz, Alejandro Soto‐Gutierrez, Ira J. Fox – 23 November 2011 – In advanced cirrhosis, impaired function is caused by intrinsic damage to the native liver cells and from the abnormal microenvironment in which the cells reside. The extent to which each plays a role in liver failure and regeneration is unknown.

Denada Dibra, Jeffry Cutrera, Xueqing Xia, Bhaskar Kallakury, Lopa Mishra, Shulin Li – 22 November 2011 – The liver is the major metabolic organ and is subjected to constant attacks from chronic viral infection, uptake of therapeutic drugs, life behavior (alcoholic), and environmental contaminants, all of which result in chronic inflammation, fibrosis, and, ultimately, cancer. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover effective therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of liver injury, the ideal drug being a naturally occurring biological inhibitor.

Nicola Santoro, Clarence K. Zhang, Hongyu Zhao, Andrew J. Pakstis, Grace Kim, Romy Kursawe, Daniel J. Dykas, Allen E. Bale, Cosimo Giannini, Bridget Pierpont, Melissa M. Shaw, Leif Groop, Sonia Caprio – 22 November 2011 – Recently, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) identified as rs1260326, in the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR), was associated with hypertriglyceridemia in adults.

Lingmin Hu, Xiangjun Zhai, Jibin Liu, Minjie Chu, Shandong Pan, Jie Jiang, Yixin Zhang, Hua Wang, Jianguo Chen, Hongbing Shen, Zhibin Hu – 22 November 2011 – Recent genome‐wide association studies showed that four single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐DP (rs3077and rs9277535) and HLA‐DQ (rs2856718 and rs7453920) were associated with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Japanese populations. More than 75% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients are attributable to persistent infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV), especially in China.

Stephen M. Brindley, Allison M. Lanham, Frederick M. Karrer, Rebecca M. Tucker, Andrew P. Fontenot, Cara L. Mack – 22 November 2011 – Biliary atresia (BA) is a progressive, inflammatory cholangiopathy that culminates in fibrosis of extrahepatic and intrahepatic bile ducts. A leading theory on the pathogenesis of BA is that the bile duct damage is initiated by a virus infection, followed by a bile duct‐targeted autoimmune response. One mechanism of autoimmunity entails a diminished number or function of regulatory T cells (Tregs).

Wei‐Chu Chie, Jane M. Blazeby, Chin‐Fu Hsiao, Herng‐Chia Chiu, Ronnie T. Poon, Naoko Mikoshiba, Gillian Al‐Kadhimi, Nigel Heaton, Jozer Calara, Peter Collins, Katharine Caddick, Anna Costantini, Valerie Vilgrain, Ludovic Trinquart, Chieh Chiang, On behalf of the EORTC Quality of Life Group – 22 November 2011 – This international field validation study examined the psychometric properties and clinical validity of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire module for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the EORTC quality‐of‐life questionnaire (QLQ)‐HCC18.