Yasuhiro Asahina, Kaoru Tsuchiya, Masaru Muraoka, Keisuke Tanaka, Yuichiro Suzuki, Nobuharu Tamaki, Yoshihide Hoshioka, Yutaka Yasui, Tomoji Katoh, Takanori Hosokawa, Ken Ueda, Hiroyuki Nakanishi, Jun Itakura, Yuka Takahashi, Masayuki Kurosaki, Nobuyuki Enomoto, Sayuri Nitta, Naoya Sakamoto, Namiki Izumi – 24 August 2011 – Innate immunity plays an important role in host antiviral response to hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection. Recently, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL28B and host response to peginterferon α (PEG‐IFNα) and ribavirin (RBV) were shown to be strongly associated.

Ana Lleo, Jieyue Liao, Pietro Invernizzi, Ming Zhao, Francesca Bernuzzi, Le Ma, Gaetana Lanzi, Aftab A. Ansari, Ross L. Coppel, Peng Zhang, Yijun Li, Zhiguang Zhou, Qianjin Lu, M. Eric Gershwin – 24 August 2011 – The cross‐talk of cluster of differentiation (CD)40/CD40 ligand (CD40L) plays a key role in CD4+ T‐cell priming, B‐cell terminal maturation, and immunoglobulin (Ig) class‐switch recombination. Genetic defects in the CD40L lead to a disorder characterized by elevated concentrations of serum IgM and immunodeficiency.

AL Mindikoglu, A Regev, SL Seliger, LS Magder – 22 August 2011

Donna L. White, Shariar Tavakoli‐Tabasi, Jill Kuzniarek, Rhia Pascua, David J. Ramsey, Hashem B. El‐Serag – 19 August 2011 – Males have strikingly increased risk of advanced liver disease. However, the association between testosterone and risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐related advanced liver disease is unknown. We performed a cross‐sectional study in male veterans with chronic HCV. Blood samples were obtained to measure total serum testosterone and perform the FibroSURE‐ActiTest.

Tai‐Chung Tseng, Chun‐Jen Liu, Hung‐Chih Yang, Tung‐Hung Su, Chia‐Chi Wang, Chi‐Ling Chen, Stephanie Fang‐Tzu Kuo, Chen‐Hua Liu, Pei‐Jer Chen, Ding‐Shinn Chen, Jia‐Horng Kao – 19 August 2011 – Loss of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) usually indicates the cure of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. In spontaneous hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconverters, lower serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels have been shown to be associated with HBsAg loss over time. However, little is known about their impacts on HBsAg loss in HBeAg‐negative patients with limited viral replication.

Sung Joong Kim, Young Chul Kim – 19 August 2011

Didier Samuel, Massimo Colombo, Hachem El‐Serag, Rodolphe Sobesky, Nigel Heaton – 19 August 2011 – Key Points

Dympna M. Kelly, Hiroaki Shiba, Shunichi Nakagawa, Samuel Irefin, Bijan Eghtesad, Cristiano Quintini, Federico Aucejo, Koji Hashimoto, John J. Fung, Charles Miller – 19 August 2011 – Severe ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury is associated with poor hepatic microperfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of hepatic artery flow (HAF) and portal vein flow (PVF) in IR injury. From January 2004 to June 2008, 566 patients underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The data were retrospectively reviewed via the transplant database.

Mina O. Rakoski, Ryan J. McCammon, John D. Piette, Theodore J. Iwashyna, Jorge A. Marrero, Anna S. Lok, Kenneth M. Langa, Michael L. Volk – 19 August 2011 – Prevalence of cirrhosis among older adults is expected to increase; therefore, we studied the health status, functional disability, and need for supportive care in a large national sample of individuals with cirrhosis. A prospective cohort of individuals with cirrhosis was identified within the longitudinal, nationally representative Health and Retirement Study.

John O'Grady – 17 August 2011 – Key Points