Richard B. Freeman – 14 January 2011

Josh Levitsky – 14 January 2011 – Every liver transplant (LT) center has had patients who either self‐discontinue immunosuppressive (IS) therapy or are deliberately withdrawn due to a research protocol or clinical concern (ie, lymphoproliferative disorder [LPD], overwhelming infection). This is understandable because maintenance IS therapy, particularly calcineurin inhibitors (CNI), is associated with significant cost, side effects, and considerable long‐term morbidity and mortality.

Robert M. Weinrieb, Deborah H.A. Van Horn, Kevin G. Lynch, Michael R. Lucey – 14 January 2011 – Alcohol is the second most common cause of cirrhosis necessitating liver transplantation in the United States, yet rates of posttransplant drinking approach 50% and no controlled clinical trials of alcoholism treatment exist in this population. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), or referral to local treatment sources (“treatment as usual” [TAU]). Addictive behavior, mood states, and general health were compared.

Aleksander Krag, Flemming Bendtsen, Søren Møller – 12 January 2011

Cumali Efe, Tugrul Purnak, Ersan Ozaslan – 12 January 2011

Maxime Ronot, Stephane Bahrami, Julien Calderaro, Dominique‐Charles Valla, Pierre Bedossa, Jacques Belghti, Valérie Vilgrain, Valérie Paradis – 12 January 2011 – Hepatocellular adenomas (HCAs) are divided into genotype/phenotype subgroups associated with different evolutive profiles. Therefore, recognition of subtype is of clinical importance in patient management. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered the most informative imaging modality and liver biopsy a key diagnostic tool whose role in HCA subtyping has never been extensively studied.

Zuzanna Makowska, Francois H. T. Duong, Gaia Trincucci, David F. Tough, Markus H. Heim – 12 January 2011 – Therapy of chronic hepatitis C with pegylated interferon α (pegIFN‐α) and ribavirin achieves sustained virological responses in approximately half of the patients. Nonresponse to treatment is associated with constitutively increased expression of IFN‐stimulated genes in the liver already before therapy.

Ersan Ozaslan – 12 January 2011

Amir Moghaddam, Espen Melum, Nils Reinton, Helmer Ring‐Larsen, Hans Verbaan, Kristian Bjøro, Olav Dalgard – 12 January 2011 – Polymorphisms near the IL28B gene, which code for interferon (IFN)‐λ3, predict response to pegylated interferon‐α (PEG‐IFN) and ribavirin treatment in hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infected patients. Follow‐up studies of the effect of IL28B gene in HCV non–genotype 1 infected patients have almost always used predominantly HCV genotype 2–infected or mixed genotype 2/3–infected cohorts with results partly conflicting with HCV genotype 1.

Rodrigo T. Calado, Jennifer Brudno, Paulomi Mehta, Joseph J. Kovacs, Colin Wu, Marco A. Zago, Stephen J. Chanock, Thomas D. Boyer, Neal S. Young – 12 January 2011 – Some patients with liver disease progress to cirrhosis, but the risk factors for cirrhosis development are unknown. Dyskeratosis congenita, an inherited bone marrow failure syndrome associated with mucocutaneous anomalies, pulmonary fibrosis, and cirrhosis, is caused by germline mutations of genes in the telomerase complex. We examined whether telomerase mutations also occurred in sporadic cirrhosis.