Monika Ferlitsch, Thomas Reiberger, Matthias Hoke, Petra Salzl, Bernadette Schwengerer, Gregor Ulbrich, Berit Anna Payer, Michael Trauner, Markus Peck‐Radosavljevic, Arnulf Ferlitsch – 24 April 2012 – von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF‐Ag) is elevated in patients with liver cirrhosis, but the clinical significance is unclear. We hypothesized that vWF‐Ag levels may correlate with portal pressure, measured by hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), and predict clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH; HVPG ≥10 mmHg), decompensation and mortality.

Dahee Choi, Kyoung‐Jin Oh, Hye‐Sook Han, Young‐Sil Yoon, Chang‐Yun Jung, Seong‐Tae Kim, Seung‐Hoi Koo – 24 April 2012 – Postprandial insulin plays a critical role in suppressing hepatic glucose production to maintain euglycemia in mammals. Insulin‐dependent activation of protein kinase B (Akt) regulates this process, in part, by inhibiting FoxO1‐dependent hepatic gluconeogenesis by direct phosphorylation and subsequent cytoplasmic exclusion.

Lauren N. Bell, Jiangxia Wang, Sriya Muralidharan, Sadhana Chalasani, Allison M. Fullenkamp, Laura A. Wilson, Arun J. Sanyal, Kris V. Kowdley, Brent A. Neuschwander‐Tetri, Elizabeth M. Brunt, Arthur J. McCullough, Nathan M.

Hiroyuki Tsuchiya, Yoshito Ikeda, Yu Ebata, Chihiro Kojima, Rikutaro Katsuma, Tatsuaki Tsuruyama, Tomohiko Sakabe, Kohei Shomori, Noriko Komeda, Shoko Oshiro, Hideharu Okamoto, Kazuko Takubo, Susumu Hama, Koichi Shudo, Kentaro Kogure, Goshi Shiota – 24 April 2012 – Transgenic mice expressing dominant‐negative retinoic acid receptor (RAR) α specifically in the liver exhibit steatohepatitis, which leads to the development of liver tumors.

Benjamin Krämer, Christian Körner, Moritz Kebschull, Andreas Glässner, Marianne Eisenhardt, Hans‐Dieter Nischalke, Michael Alexander, Tilman Sauerbruch, Ulrich Spengler, Jacob Nattermann – 24 April 2012 – Natural killer (NK) cells play a role in the early control and natural course of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. NK cell function is regulated by a multitude of receptors, including activating NKp46 receptor. However, reports on NKp46 in hepatitis C are controversial.

Yugo Ando, Guo‐Xiang Yang, Masanobu Tsuda, Kazuhito Kawata, Weici Zhang, Takahiko Nakajima, Koichi Tsuneyama, Patrick Leung, Zhe‐Xiong Lian, Kazuichi Okazaki, William M. Ridgway, Gary L. Norman, Aftab A. Ansari, Xiao‐Song He, Ross L. Coppel, M. Eric Gershwin – 24 April 2012 – Dominant negative form of transforming growth factor beta receptor type II (dnTGFβRII) mice, expressing a dominant negative form of TGFβ receptor II under control of the CD4 promoter, develop autoimmune colitis and cholangitis.

James J. Pomposelli, Assanee Tongyoo, Christoph Wald, Elizabeth A. Pomfret – 24 April 2012 – The estimation of the standard liver volume (SLV) is an important component of the evaluation of potential living liver donors and the surgical planning for resection for tumors. At least 16 different formulas for estimating SLV have been published in the worldwide literature. More recently, several proprietary software‐assisted image postprocessing (SAIP) programs have been developed to provide accurate volume measurements based on the actual anatomy of a specific patient.

John W. Ward, Kathy K. Byrd – 24 April 2012

George N. Ioannou, Christopher L. Bryson, Noel S. Weiss, Richard Miller, John D. Scott, Edward J. Boyko – 24 April 2012 – Cirrhosis is a leading cause of death among patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We sought to determine risk factors for and time trends in the prevalence of cirrhosis, decompensated cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among patients diagnosed with HIV who received care in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system nationally between 1996 and 2009 (n = 24,040 in 2009).

Itay Shalev, Nazia Selzner, Wendy Shyu, David Grant, Gary Levy – 21 April 2012 – Liver transplantation is now recognized as the most effective therapy for patients with end‐stage acute and chronic liver failure. Despite outstanding short‐term graft and patient survival, liver transplantation continues to face several major challenges, including poor long‐term graft survival due to chronic rejection and major side effects of long‐term immunosuppressive therapy (which is required for the prevention of rejection).