Natalie Bzowej, David R. Nelson, Norah A. Terrault, Gregory T. Everson, Lichen L. Teng, Avinash Prabhakar, Michael R. Charlton, for the PHOENIX Study Group – 14 January 2011 – The efficacy, tolerability, and safety of the prophylactic treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) after liver transplantation (LT) with peginterferon alfa‐2a and ribavirin are not known. LT recipients with HCV were randomized to peginterferon alfa‐2a/ribavirin treatment or observation 10 to 26 weeks post‐LT.

Caterina Dal Ponte, Elisa Alchera, Antonia Follenzi, Chiara Imarisio, Maria Prat, Emanuele Albano, Rita Carini – 14 January 2011 – Postconditioning is a procedure based on the induction of intracellular protective reactions immediately after the onset of reperfusion. Because of the growing need to prevent ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury during liver surgery and transplantation, we investigated the possibility of pharmacologically inducing hepatic postconditioning.

Omar Massoud, Julie Heimbach, Kimberly Viker, Anuradha Krishnan, John Poterucha, William Sanchez, Kymberly Watt, Russell Wiesner, Michael Charlton – 14 January 2011 – The diagnosis of acute cellular rejection (ACR) requires liver biopsy with its attendant expense and risk. Our first aim was to prospectively determine in an exploratory analysis whether there is a serum proteome signature associated with histologically confirmed ACR.

Ping Zhou, Nataly Lessa, Daniel C. Estrada, Ella B. Severson, Shilpa Lingala, Mark A. Zern, Jan A. Nolta, Jian Wu – 14 January 2011 – The transplantation of primary hepatocytes has been shown to augment the function of damaged livers and to bridge patients to liver transplantation. However, primary hepatocytes often have low levels of engraftment and survive for only a short time after transplantation. To explore the potential benefits of using decellularized liver matrix (DLM) as a carrier for hepatocyte transplantation, DLM from whole mouse livers was generated.

Alexandra Zahn, Nadja Schott, Ulf Hinz, Wolfgang Stremmel, Jan Schmidt, Tom Ganten, Daniel Gotthardt, Stefan Meuer, Martin Zeier, Thomas Giese, Claudia Sommerer – 14 January 2011 – Long‐term calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) treatment can cause serious side effects in liver allograft recipients. An optimal risk‐to‐benefit ratio for CNI blood levels has not been established. Pharmacodynamic drug monitoring through the measurement of the CNI biological activity, that is, the expression of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT)–regulated genes, seems to be a promising approach.

Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Nicholas A. Shackel, David G. Bowen – 14 January 2011

Sammy Saab, Hillary Bownik, Noel Ayoub, Zobair Younossi, Francisco Durazo, Steven Han, Johnny C. Hong, Douglas Farmer, Ronald W. Busuttil – 14 January 2011 – One of the current ultimate goals of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the improvement of patients' health‐related quality of life (HRQOL). The purpose of this study was to look at the effects of socioeconomic and demographic differences on the short‐term and long‐term HRQOL outcomes of OLT recipients.

Flavio Paterno, Adeel Khan, Keith Cavaness, Massimo Asolati, Jeffrey Campsen, Greg J. McKenna, Nicholas Onaca, Richard Ruiz, James Trotter, Goran B. Klintmalm – 14 January 2011

Sammy Saab, Vivian Ng, Carmen Landaverde, Sung‐Jae Lee, W. Scott Comulada, Jennifer Arevalo, Francisco Durazo, Steven‐Huy Han, Zobari Younossi, Ronald W. Busuttil – 14 January 2011 – Currently, no disease‐targeted instrument is available for measuring health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) in liver transplant recipients. We developed and tested a post–liver transplant quality of life (pLTQ) instrument. Item selection for the pLTQ instrument was based on responses from liver transplant recipients, 12 liver experts, and a literature search.

Richard B. Freeman – 14 January 2011