Josep M. Orellana‐Gavaldà, Laura Herrero, Maria Ida Malandrino, Astrid Pañeda, Maria Sol Rodríguez‐Peña, Harald Petry, Guillermina Asins, Sander Van Deventer, Fausto G. Hegardt, Dolors Serra – 22 December 2010 – Obesity‐induced insulin resistance is associated with both ectopic lipid deposition and chronic, low‐grade adipose tissue inflammation. Despite their excess fat, obese individuals show lower fatty‐acid oxidation (FAO) rates. This has raised the question of whether burning off the excess fat could improve the obese metabolic phenotype.

John S. White, John P. Foreyt – 22 December 2010

Gin‐Ho Lo – 22 December 2010

Andrew D. Yeoman, Rachel H. Westbrook, Yoh Zen, Paola Maninchedda, Bernard C. Portmann, John Devlin, John G. O'Grady, Phillip M. Harrison, Michael A. Heneghan – 22 December 2010 – Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) typically responds to treatment in 90% of patients. Early prediction of treatment outcome would be advantageous in clinical practice. We evaluated whether parameters at initiation of therapy or changes in these parameters at day 3 and day 7 following corticosteroid initiation predicted treatment failure.

Seth Sweetser, Conor G. Loftus – 22 December 2010

Maria Stepanova, Fasiha Kanwal, Hashem B. El‐Serag, Zobair M. Younossi – 17 December 2010 – Successful treatment with antiviral therapy could potentially reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, at the population level, these benefits may be offset by a limited number of patients who have access to antiviral treatment. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2005‐2008, we analyzed the health insurance status and treatment candidacy of HCV‐positive (HCV+) individuals.

Kristina Aleksic, Carolin Lackner, Jochen B. Geigl, Martina Schwarz, Martina Auer, Peter Ulz, Maria Fischer, Zlatko Trajanoski, Marcus Otte, Michael R. Speicher – 17 December 2010 – Diethylnitrosamine (DEN) is a hepatic procarcinogen which is frequently used as an inducer of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in mice. Although mice after DEN exposure are among the most widely used models for liver tumorigenesis, a detailed, mechanistic characterization of the longitudinal changes in the respective tumor genomes has never been performed.

Weili Liu, Xiaoxing Li, Eagle S.H. Chu, Minnie Y.Y. Go, Lixia Xu, Guijun Zhao, Lili Li, Ning Dai, Jianmin Si, Qian Tao, Joseph J.Y. Sung, Jun Yu – 17 December 2010 – The paired box 5 (PAX5) is a member of PAX transcription factors family involved in the regulation of embryonic development. However, the role of PAX5 in carcinogenesis is largely unclear. We identified that PAX5 is involved in human cancer by methylation‐sensitive representational difference analysis. We examined the biological functions and related molecular mechanisms of PAX5 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Antonio Colecchia, Lucia Montrone, Eleonora Scaioli, Davide Festi – 17 December 2010

Mitchell R. McGill, Hui‐Min Yan, Anup Ramachandran, Gordon J. Murray, Douglas E. Rollins, Hartmut Jaeschke – 17 December 2010 – Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is the leading cause of acute liver failure in Western countries. In the last four decades much progress has been made in our understanding of APAP‐induced liver injury through rodent studies. However, some differences exist in the time course of injury between rodents and humans. To study the mechanism of APAP hepatotoxicity in humans, a human‐relevant in vitro system is needed.