Eric Trépo, Pierre Pradat, Andrej Potthoff, Yukihide Momozawa, Eric Quertinmont, Thierry Gustot, Arnaud Lemmers, Pascale Berthillon, Leila Amininejad, Michéle Chevallier, Jerome Schlué, Hans Kreipe, Jacques Devière, Michael Manns, Christian Trépo, John Sninsky, Heiner Wedemeyer, Denis Franchimont, Christophe Moreno – 12 April 2011 – Only 20% of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) will develop cirrhosis, and fibrosis progression remains highly unpredictable.

Prakash C. Thakur, Carsten Stuckenholz, Marcus R. Rivera, Jon M. Davison, Jeffrey K. Yao, Adam Amsterdam, Kirsten C. Sadler, Nathan Bahary – 12 April 2011 – Hepatic steatosis is the initial stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and may predispose to more severe hepatic disease, including hepatocellular carcinoma. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been recently implicated as a novel mechanism that may lead to NAFLD, although the genetic factors invoking ER stress are largely unknown.

Gia L. Tyson, Hashem B. El‐Serag – 12 April 2011 – Cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is the second most common primary hepatic malignancy after hepatocellular cancer. CC accounts for approximately 10%‐25% of all hepatobiliary malignancies. There are considerable geographic and demographic variations in the incidence of CC. There are several established risk factors for CC, including parasitic infections, primary sclerosing cholangitis, biliary‐duct cysts, hepatolithiasis, and toxins.

Arduino Arduini, Mario Bonomini – 12 April 2011

Barbara E. Wildhaber – 12 April 2011

Giliola Calori, Guido Lattuada, Francesca Ragogna, Maria Paola Garancini, Paolo Crosignani, Marco Villa, Emanuele Bosi, Giacomo Ruotolo, Lorenzo Piemonti, Gianluca Perseghin – 12 April 2011 – A fatty liver, which is a common feature in insulin‐resistant states, can lead to chronic liver disease. It has been hypothesized that a fatty liver can also increase the rates of non–hepatic‐related morbidity and mortality.

Markus Casper, Frank Grünhage, Frank Lammert – 7 April 2011 – To identify susceptibility variants for hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we conducted a genome‐wide association study by genotyping 440,794 SNPs in 355 chronic HBV carriers with HCC and 360 chronic HBV carriers without HCC, all of Chinese ancestry.

Bruno Christ, Peggy Stock, Matthias M. Dollinger – 7 April 2011 – Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are generally dormant or slowly cycling tumor cells that have the ability to reconstitute tumors. They are thought to be involved in tumor resistance to chemo/radiation therapy and tumor relapse and progression. However, neither their existence nor their identity within many cancers has been well defined.

Malcolm R. Alison, Wey‐Ran Lin – 7 April 2011 – The liver and exocrine pancreas share a common structure, with functioning units (hepatic plates and pancreatic acini) connected to the ductal tree. Here we show that Sox9 is expressed throughout the biliary and pancreatic ductal epithelia, which are connected to the intestinal stem‐cell zone. Cre‐based lineage tracing showed that adult intestinal cells, hepatocytes and pancreatic acinar cells are supplied physiologically from Sox9‐expressing progenitors.

Yong‐Ning Xin, Zhong‐Hua Lin, Shi‐Ying Xuan – 5 April 2011