Pablo Bellot, Juan Carlos García‐Pagán, Rubén Francés, Juan G. Abraldes, Miguel Navasa, Miguel Pérez‐Mateo, José Such, Jaime Bosch – 20 August 2010 – Presence of bacterial DNA in noninfected patients with cirrhosis and ascites is associated with a marked inflammatory response including activation of the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase and release of nitric oxide, similar to that observed in patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Although presence of bacterial DNA is associated with an impaired prognosis, no information is available regarding its hemodynamic consequences.

Emanuele Nicastro, Giusy Ranucci, Pietro Vajro, Angela Vegnente, Raffaele Iorio – 20 August 2010 – The diagnosis of Wilson disease (WD) is challenging, especially in children. Early detection is desirable in order to avoid dramatic disease progression. The aim of our study was to re‐evaluate in WD children with mild liver disease the conventional diagnostic criteria and the WD scoring system proposed by an international consensus in 2001.

Laura Llacuna, Cristina Bárcena, Lola Bellido‐Martín, Laura Fernández, Milica Stefanovic, Montserrat Marí, Carmen García‐Ruiz, José C. Fernández‐Checa, Pablo García de Frutos, Albert Morales – 20 August 2010 – Growth arrest–specific gene 6 (GAS6) promotes growth and cell survival during tissue repair and development in different organs, including the liver. However, the specific role of GAS6 in liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury has not been previously addressed. Here we report an early increase in serum GAS6 levels after I/R exposure.

Marcos Martínez‐Clemente, Natàlia Ferré, Esther Titos, Raquel Horrillo, Ana González‐Périz, Eva Morán‐Salvador, Cristina López‐Vicario, Rosa Miquel, Vicente Arroyo, Colin D. Funk, Joan Clària – 20 August 2010 – We have shown that Alox15, the gene encoding for 12/15‐lipoxygenase (12/15‐LO), is markedly up‐regulated in livers from apolipoprotein E‐deficient (ApoE−/−) mice, which spontaneously develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease secondary to hyperlipidemia.

Lieve Braeye, Ruben Vanheste – 20 August 2010

Gerald U. Denk, Silvia Maitz, Ralf Wimmer, Christian Rust, Pietro Invernizzi, Sacha Ferdinandusse, Wim Kulik, Andrea Fuchsbichler, Peter Fickert, Michael Trauner, Alan F. Hofmann, Ulrich Beuers – 20 August 2010 – NorUDCA (24‐norursodeoxycholic acid), the C23‐homolog of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), showed remarkable therapeutic effects in cholestatic Mdr2 (Abcb4) (multidrug resistance protein 2/ATP‐binding cassette b4) knockout mice with sclerosing/fibrosing cholangitis.

Giovanni Targher, Christopher P. Day – 19 August 2010

Massimo Iavarone, Angelo Sangiovanni, Laura Virginia Forzenigo, Sara Massironi, Mirella Fraquelli, Alessio Aghemo, Guido Ronchi, Piero Biondetti, Massimo Roncalli, Massimo Colombo – 19 August 2010 – Dynamic contrast imaging techniques are considered the standard of care for the radiological diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhosis. However, the accuracy of radiological diagnosis depends largely on the degree of arterial hypervascularization, which increases with tumor size.

Karsten Wursthorn, Mechthild Jung, Antonio Riva, Zachary D. Goodman, Patricia Lopez, Weibin Bao, Michael P. Manns, Heiner Wedemeyer, Nikolai V. Naoumov – 19 August 2010 – The impact of prolonged direct antiviral therapy on hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels in patients with chronic hepatitis B is poorly understood.

Xiao Yang, Virginia Haurigot, Shangzhen Zhou, Guangxiang Luo, Linda B Couto – 19 August 2010 – RNA interference (RNAi) is being evaluated as an alternative therapeutic strategy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The use of viral vectors encoding short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) has been the most common strategy employed to provide sustained expression of RNAi effectors. However, overexpression and incomplete processing of shRNAs has led to saturation of the endogenous miRNA pathway, resulting in toxicity.