James D. Perkins – 23 February 2012

Chapy Venkatesan, Zobair M. Younossi – 23 February 2012

Akihide Kamiya, Atsushi Miyajima – 23 February 2012

Andrew C. Nelson, Jose Jessurun, Randolph K. Peterson, Stefan E. Pambuccian – 17 February 2012

Emily M. Fredericks, Dawn Dore‐Stites, Sheyla Y. Calderon, Andrew Well, Sally J. Eder, John C. Magee, M. James Lopez – 17 February 2012 – Among adult liver transplant recipients (LTRs), sleep disturbances and fatigue are common. Sleep problems following pediatric liver transplantation may contribute to daytime fatigue and lower health‐related quality of life (HRQOL). The aim of this cross‐sectional study was to determine the impact of sleep problems on the HRQOL of pediatric LTRs using validated measures. Participants included 47 LTRs.

Neha A. Deshpande, Nathan T. James, Lauren M. Kucirka, Brian J. Boyarsky, Jacqueline M. Garonzik‐Wang, Andrew M. Cameron, Andrew L. Singer, Nabil N. Dagher, Dorry L. Segev – 17 February 2012 – Approximately 14,000 women of reproductive age are currently living in the United States after liver transplantation (LT), and another 500 undergo LT each year. Although LT improves reproductive function in women with advanced liver disease, the associated pregnancy outcomes and maternal‐fetal risks have not been quantified in a broad manner.

Sharon W. Kwan, Nicholas Fidelman, Elizabeth Ma, Robert K. Kerlan, Francis Y. Yao – 17 February 2012 – Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is one of the standard therapies for bridging patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to transplantation. This study was designed to determine which features on pre‐ and post‐TACE imaging are associated with tumor necrosis in pathological specimens. Records of 105 patients with 132 HCC lesions who underwent liver transplantation after TACE were retrospectively reviewed. In 70% of the nodules, >90% necrosis was achieved.

Xuefeng Xia, Wei Chen, Tao Ma, Guodong Xu, Hao Liu, Chao Liang, Xueli Bai, Yun Zhang, Yong He, Tingbo Liang – 17 February 2012 – Acute graft‐versus‐host disease is a serious and life‐threatening complication of liver transplantation (LT) that occurs in 1% to 2% of liver allograft recipients. It is associated with a high mortality rate, and effective therapies are lacking. In our established rat model, a relative decrease in regulatory T cells (Tregs) was previously shown to be associated with acute graft‐versus‐host disease after liver transplantation (LT‐aGVHD).

Itziar Otano, Lester Suarez, Javier Dotor, Manuela Gonzalez‐Aparicio, Julien Crettaz, Cristina Olagüe, Africal Vales, Jose Ignacio Riezu, Esther Larrea, Francisco Borras, Alberto Benito, Ruben Hernandez‐Alcoceba, Stephan Menne, Jesús Prieto, Gloria González‐Aseguinolaza – 15 February 2012 – Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a critical role in the modulation of immune responses to viral antigens in chronic viral hepatitis. Woodchucks (Marmota monax) infected with the woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) represent the best animal model for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

Amika Singla, David S. Moons, Natasha T. Snider, Elizabeth R. Wagenmaker, V. Bernadene Jayasundera, M. Bishr Omary – 15 February 2012 – Mallory‐Denk bodies (MDBs) are hepatocyte inclusions commonly seen in steatohepatitis. They are induced in mice by feeding 3,5‐diethoxycarbonyl‐1,4‐dihydrocollidine (DDC) for 12 weeks, which also causes porphyrin accumulation. Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is caused by mutations in ferrochelatase (fch), and a fraction of EPP patients develop liver disease that is phenocopied in Fechm1Pas mutant (fch/fch) mice, which have an inactivating fch mutation.