Nitika Arora Gupta, Jamie Mells, Richard M. Dunham, Arash Grakoui, Jeffrey Handy, Neeraj Kumar Saxena, Frank A. Anania – 22 April 2010 – Glucagon‐like peptide 1 (GLP‐1) is a naturally occurring peptide secreted by the L cells of the small intestine. GLP‐1 functions as an incretin and stimulates glucose‐mediated insulin production by pancreatic β cells. In this study, we demonstrate that exendin‐4/GLP‐1 has a cognate receptor on human hepatocytes and that exendin‐4 has a direct effect on the reduction of hepatic steatosis in the absence of insulin.

Jae Keun Lee, Ju Hyun Shim, Han Chu Lee, Sae Hwan Lee, Kang Mo Kim, Young‐Suk Lim, Young‐Hwa Chung, Yung Sang Lee, Dong Jin Suh – 22 April 2010 – A recent study in young Italian subjects suggested that the healthy thresholds for serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels should be adjusted to 30 IU/L for men and 19 IU/L for women when assessing risk factors for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Our aim was to assess serum ALT concentrations in healthy Korean individuals and to determine the factors affecting ALT levels in these populations.

Guisheng Song, Amar Deep Sharma, Garrett R. Roll, Raymond Ng, Andrew Y. Lee, Robert H. Blelloch, Niels M. Frandsen, Holger Willenbring – 22 April 2010 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a new class of regulators of gene expression. Among other actions, miRNAs have been shown to control cell proliferation in development and cancer. However, whether miRNAs regulate hepatocyte proliferation during liver regeneration is unknown.

Kausik Das, Kshaunish Das, Partha S. Mukherjee, Alip Ghosh, Sumantra Ghosh, Asit R. Mridha, Tapan Dhibar, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dilip Bhattacharya, Byomkesh Manna, Gopal K. Dhali, Amal Santra, Abhijit Chowdhury – 22 April 2010 – There is a paucity of community‐based epidemiological data on nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) among nonaffluent populations in developing countries. Available studies are radiological and/or biochemical and lack histological assessment, limiting their strength.

Brad Q. Starley, Christopher J. Calcagno, Stephen A. Harrison – 22 April 2010 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common and deadly malignancy that is increasing in incidence in developed countries. The emergence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) accounts for about half of this increase in HCC, although the etiology of HCC in 15%‐50% of new HCC cases remains unclear. The most common form of chronic liver disease in developed countries is nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which encompasses a broad spectrum of histopathology.

Yusuf Yilmaz, Engin Ulukaya – 22 April 2010

Jannes Woudenberg, Krzysztof P. Rembacz, Fiona A. J. van den Heuvel, Titia E. Woudenberg‐Vrenken, Manon Buist‐Homan, Mariska Geuken, Mark Hoekstra, Leo E. Deelman, Carlos Enrich, Rob H. Henning, Han Moshage, Klaas Nico Faber – 22 April 2010 – Caveolae are a subtype of cholesterol‐enriched lipid microdomains/rafts that are routinely detected as vesicles pinching off from the plasma membrane. Caveolin‐1 is an essential component of caveolae. Hepatic caveolin‐1 plays an important role in liver regeneration and lipid metabolism.

Jin‐Kyu Park, Mi‐Ran Ki, Hye‐Rim Lee, Il‐Hwa Hong, Ae‐Ri Ji, Akihito Ishigami, Se‐Il Park, Ji‐Min Kim, Hae‐Young Chung, Sung‐Eun Yoo, Kyu‐Shik Jeong – 22 April 2010 – Senescence marker protein 30 (SMP30), an important aging marker molecule that is highly expressed in the liver, has been known to protect hepatocytes from apoptosis by the synthesis of vitamin C. To explore the function of SMP30 in liver fibrosis, the effect of SMP30 deficiency on liver fibrosis was investigated in SMP30 knockout (KO) mice.

Shinya Ueki, Rajeev Dhupar, Jon Cardinal, Allan Tsung, Junichi Yoshida, Kikumi S. Ozaki, John R. Klune, Noriko Murase, David A. Geller – 22 April 2010 – Interferon regulatory factor‐1 (IRF‐1) is a transcription factor that regulates gene expression during immunity. We hypothesized that IRF‐1 plays a pivotal role in liver transplant (LTx) ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Mouse orthotopic LTx was conducted after 24 hours cold storage in University of Wisconsin (UW) solution in wildtype (WT) C57BL/6 and IRF‐1 knockout (KO) mice.

Malika Ait‐Goughoulte, Arup Banerjee, Keith Meyer, Budhaditya Mazumdar, Kousuke Saito, Ratna B. Ray, Ranjit Ray – 22 April 2010 – Fibrinogen‐β (FBG‐β), an important acute‐phase protein (APP), is generated by the liver as a target for inflammatory mediators. Here we identified FBG‐β as a hepatitis C virus (HCV) core interacting protein by screening a human liver complementary DNA (cDNA) library using mammalian two‐hybrid analysis.