Rita Golfieri, Alberta Cappelli, Alessandro Cucchetti, Fabio Piscaglia, Maria Carpenzano, Eugenia Peri, Matteo Ravaioli, Antonia D'Errico‐Grigioni, Antonio Daniele Pinna, Luigi Bolondi – 23 February 2011 – Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is commonly used as a bridge therapy for patients awaiting liver transplantation (LT) and for downstaging patients initially not meeting the Milan criteria.

Melania Manco, Cristina Lo Zupone, Alessandro Latini, Vincenzina Lucidi, Lidia Monti – 23 February 2011

Rafael San‐Juan, Jose M. Aguado, Carlos Lumbreras, Jesus Fortun, Oscar Len, Patricia Munoz, Miguel Montejo, Asunción Moreno, Elisa Cordero, Marino Blanes, Antonio Ramos, Julian Torre‐Cisneros, Francisco López‐Medrano, Jordi Carratala, Enrique Moreno, for the Spanish Network of Infection in Transplantation/Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases – 23 February 2011 – The role of selective intestinal decontamination with fluoroquinolones (FQ‐SID) in the prevention of early bacterial infections (EBIs) in liver transplant recipients (LTRs) is unknown.

Sven Haufe, Stefan Engeli, Petra Kast, Jana Böhnke, Wolfgang Utz, Verena Haas, Mario Hermsdorf, Anja Mähler, Susanne Wiesner, Andreas L. Birkenfeld, Henrike Sell, Christoph Otto, Heidrun Mehling, Friedrich C. Luft, Juergen Eckel, Jeanette Schulz‐Menger, Michael Boschmann, Jens Jordan – 15 February 2011 – Obesity‐related hepatic steatosis is a major risk factor for metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Fat reduced hypocaloric diets are able to relieve the liver from ectopically stored lipids.

Robert J. Clifford, Kenneth H. Buetow – 15 February 2011

Amar Deep Sharma, Nidhi Narain, Eva‐Maria Händel, Marcus Iken, Nishant Singhal, Toni Cathomen, Michael P. Manns, Hans R. Schöler, Michael Ott, Tobias Cantz – 15 February 2011 – Death receptor‐mediated apoptosis of hepatocytes contributes to hepatitis and fulminant liver failure. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), 19‐25 nucleotide‐long noncoding RNAs, have been implicated in the posttranscriptional regulation of the various apoptotic pathways. Here we report that global loss of miRNAs in hepatic cells leads to increased cell death in a model of FAS/CD95 receptor‐induced apoptosis.

Xiaoyong Zhang, Ejuan Zhang, Zhiyong Ma, Rongjuan Pei, Min Jiang, Joerg F. Schlaak, Michael Roggendorf, Mengji Lu – 14 February 2011 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved small noncoding RNAs participating in regulation of various cellular processes. Viruses have been shown to utilize cellular miRNAs to increase their replication in host cells. Until now, the role of miRNAs in hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication has remained largely unknown. In this study, a number of miRNA mimics were transfected into hepatoma cell lines with HBV replication.

Shinji Shimoda, Kenichi Harada, Hiroaki Niiro, Ken Shirabe, Akinobu Taketomi, Yoshihiko Maehara, Koichi Tsuneyama, Yasuni Nakanuma, Patrick Leung, Aftab A. Ansari, M. Eric Gershwin, Koichi Akashi – 14 February 2011 – Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is characterized by chronic nonsuppurative destructive cholangitis (CNSDC) associated with destruction of small bile ducts.

James Fung, Ching‐Lung Lai, John Yuen, Charles Cheng, Ringo Wu, Danny Ka‐Ho Wong, Wai‐Kay Seto, Ivan Fan‐Ngai Hung, Man‐Fung Yuen – 14 February 2011 – We aimed to determine the 2‐year outcomes of entecavir followed by lamivudine in patients with undetectable viral load (<12 IU/mL) and normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) after initial entecavir treatment for at least 6 months. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to continue with entecavir or switch to lamivudine. Liver biochemistry and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA were determined at weeks 0, 4, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96.

Tsutomu Matsubara, Naoki Tanaka, Andrew D. Patterson, Joo‐Youn Cho, Kristopher W. Krausz, Frank J. Gonzalez – 14 February 2011 – Lithocholic acid (LCA) is an endogenous compound associated with hepatic toxicity during cholestasis. LCA exposure in mice resulted in decreased serum lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and sphingomyelin levels due to elevated lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase (LPCAT) and sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase (SMPD) expression.