Ingrid Imhof, Peter Simmonds – 11 January 2011 – Protease inhibitors (PIs) have proven to be effective adjuncts to interferon/ribavirin treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Little clinical or in vitro data exists, however, on their effectiveness for nontype 1 genotypes that predominate in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and most of Asia. NS3 protease and NS4A genes from genotypes 1‐6 were inserted into the JFH clone to generate replication‐competent intergenotype chimeras. Susceptibility to PIs was determined by replication and infectivity assays.

J. Ignacio Herrero, Fernando Pardo, Delia D'Avola, Félix Alegre, Fernando Rotellar, Mercedes Iñarrairaegui, Pablo Martí, Bruno Sangro, Jorge Quiroga – 10 January 2011 – Liver transplant recipients have an increased risk of malignancy. Smoking is related to some of the most frequent causes of posttransplant malignancy. The incidence and risk factors for the development of neoplasia related to smoking (head and neck, lung, esophageal, and kidney and urinary tract carcinomas) were studied in 339 liver transplant recipients.

A.J. di Mambro, R. Parker, A. McCune, F. Gordon, C.M. Dayan, P. Collins – 10 January 2011 – Steroids improve the outcome in alcoholic hepatitis (AH), but up to 40% of patients fail to respond adequately. Interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) exacerbates steroid resistance in vitro. We performed a prospective study to determine if intrinsic steroid sensitivity correlates with response to steroids in individuals with severe AH and if IL‐2 receptor blockade can reverse this. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from 20 patients with AH and a Maddrey's score >32.

Milan J. Sonneveld, Vincent Rijckborst, Harry L.A. Janssen – 10 January 2011

Lionel Piroth, Christine Larsen, Elisabeth Delarocque‐Astagneau, Stanislas Pol – 10 January 2011

Honglei Weng, Hai Li, Steven Dooley – 10 January 2011

Ashwani K. Singal, Sarat C. Jampana, Bhupinderjit S. Anand – 10 January 2011

Jong Man Kim, Sung‐Joo Kim, Jae‐Won Joh, Choon Hyuck David Kwon, Sanghyun Song, Milljae Shin, Ju Ik Moon, Gaab Soo Kim, Seung Heui Hong, Suk‐Koo Lee – 10 January 2011 – Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections contracted after liver transplantation put patients at an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. We analyzed the effects of CMV infection by time of onset, mortality, and graft failure risk factors in liver recipients who were CMV donor‐positive/recipient‐positive (D+/R+). We reviewed 618 medical records for consecutive adult liver transplant cases.

William Sievert, Gregory J. Dore, Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Motoko Yoshihara, Darrell H. Crawford, Wendy Cheng, Martin Weltman, William Rawlinson, Bishoy Rizkalla, Jean K. DePamphilis, Stuart K. Roberts, on behalf of the CHARIOT Study Group – 10 January 2011 – Anemia may increase the likelihood of achieving a sustained virological response (SVR) during pegylated interferon and ribavirin treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. To determine whether hemoglobin decline is associated with SVR, we retrospectively evaluated the CHARIOT study of 871 treatment‐naïve HCV genotype 1 patients.

Humphrey Hodgson, Clare Selden – 10 January 2011