Melissa R. Miller, Ronald J. Sokol, Michael R. Narkewicz, Marci K. Sontag – 23 January 2012 – Severe liver disease affects 4.5% to 10% of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) and is the third‐leading cause of death. Liver transplantation (LT) is an accepted therapy, but the effects of liver disease and LT on pulmonary function in patients with CF are controversial. Our aim was to characterize changes in pulmonary function in LT patients with CF.

Christophe Corpechot, Fabrice Carrat, Armelle Poujol‐Robert, Farid Gaouar, Dominique Wendum, Olivier Chazouillères, Raoul Poupon – 23 January 2012 – The development of liver fibrosis markers in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is needed to facilitate the assessment of its progression and the effectiveness of new therapies. Here, we investigated the potential usefulness of transient elastography (TE) in the noninvasive evaluation of liver fibrosis stage and disease progression in PBC.

Komal Ramani, Maria Lauda Tomasi – 23 January 2012 – Methionine adenosyltransferases (MATs) are critical enzymes that catalyze the formation of the methyl donor S‐adenosyl methionine (SAM). The MAT2A gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit α2, is induced in dedifferentiated liver. We previously demonstrated that MAT2A expression is enhanced in activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and that silencing this gene reduces HSC activation. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanisms responsible for the transcriptional regulation of the MAT2A gene in HSCs.

Claudia D. Fuchs, Thierry Claudel, Pooja Kumari, Guenter Haemmerle, Marion J. Pollheimer, Tatjana Stojakovic, Hubert Scharnagl, Emina Halilbasic, Judith Gumhold, Dagmar Silbert, Harald Koefeler, Michael Trauner – 23 January 2012 – Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by triglyceride (TG) accumulation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.

Ning Li, Lei Zhang, Liangwei Chen, Wenfeng Feng, Yinfeng Xu, Feng Chen, Xiaohong Liu, Zhi Chen, Wei Liu – 23 January 2012 – Human MxA, an interferon‐inducible cytoplasmic dynamin‐like GTPase, possesses antiviral activity against multiple RNA viruses. Recently, MxA has also been demonstrated to have activity against the hepatitis B virus (HBV), a well‐known DNA virus responsible for acute and chronic liver disease in humans. We investigated the molecular mechanism for the anti‐HBV activity of MxA.

Joao Seda Neto, Renata Pugliese, Eduardo A. Fonseca, Rodrigo Vincenzi, Vincenzo Pugliese, Helry Candido, Alberto B. Stein, Marcel Benavides, Bernardo Ketzer, Hsiang Teng, Gilda Porta, Irene K. Miura, Vera Baggio, Teresa Guimaraes, Adriana Porta, Celso Arrais Rodrigues, Francisco C. Carnevale, Eduardo Carone, Mario Kondo, Paulo Chapchap – 23 January 2012 – The availability of living donors allows transplant teams to indicate living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) early in the course of liver disease before the occurrence of life‐threatening complications.

Leandro C. Mosna, Jang Moon, Francisco Hernandez, Peter Hodgkinson, Ji Fan, Gennaro Selvaggi, Akin Tekin, Seigo Nishida, David Levi, Andreas G. Tzakis – 23 January 2012

Cristina Rigamonti, Mirella Fraquelli, Anan Judina Bastiampillai, Lucio Caccamo, Paolo Reggiani, Giorgio Rossi, Massimo Colombo, Maria Francesca Donato – 23 January 2012 – Transient elastography (TE) reliably predicts the severity of recurrent hepatitis C virus after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT); however, its accuracy in evaluating nonviral liver graft damage is unknown.

Karin Hoppe‐Seyler, Peter Sauer, Claudia Lohrey, Felix Hoppe‐Seyler – 23 January 2012 – The inhibitors of pyrimidine synthesis, leflunomide and FK778, have been reported to exert broad antiviral effects, in addition to their immunosuppressive activities. Their possible therapeutic benefit for transplantation medicine is currently discussed, because they also block the replication of human cytomegalovirus and human polyomavirus BK, which both cause important complications in transplant recipients.

Eric S. Orman, Paul H. Hayashi, Evan S. Dellon, David A. Gerber, A. Sidney Barritt – 23 January 2012 – Safety concerns have been raised about nighttime and weekend patient care, but it is unknown whether these issues affect liver transplantation. We sought to identify the impact of nighttime and weekend liver transplants on graft and patient survival. We used the United Network for Organ Sharing database to review adult liver transplants from 1987 to 2010. Comparisons were made between nighttime and daytime operations and between weekday and weekend operations.