Hanna C. Hermann, Burghard F. Klapp, Gerhard Danzer, Christina Papachristou – 16 December 2009 – Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has developed into an important therapeutic option for liver diseases. For living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT), gender‐specific differences have been observed among both donors (two‐thirds being women and one‐third being men) and recipients (two‐thirds being men and one‐third being women). The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a gender disparity for LDLT.

Joao Seda Neto, Eduardo Carone, Renata P. S. Pugliese, Eduardo A. Fonseca, Gilda Porta, Irene Miura, Vera B. Danesi, Teresa C. Guimaraes, Andre L. Godoy, Adriana Porta, Rodrigo Vincenzi, Francisco Carnevale Filho, Mario Kondo, Paulo Chapchap – 15 December 2009 – The Pediatric End‐Stage Liver Disease (PELD) scoring system is a formula developed to provide a continuous numerical assessment of the risk of death in order to allocate livers to children in need of transplantation. The PELD scoring system was introduced in Brazil in July 2006.

Francisco J. Gainza, – 15 December 2009

Shelly C. Lu – 9 December 2009

Wey‐Ran Lin, Siew‐Na Lim, Stuart A. C. McDonald, Trevor Graham, Victoria L. Wright, Claire L. Peplow, Adam Humphries, Hemant M. Kocher, Nicholas A. Wright, Amar P. Dhillon, Malcolm R. Alison – 30 November 2009 – Here, we investigate the clonality and cells of origin of regenerative nodules in human liver cirrhosis using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations as markers of clonal expansion. Mutated cells are identified phenotypically by deficiency in the entirely mtDNA encoded cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) enzyme by histochemical and immunohistochemical methods.

Man‐Fung Yuen, Kwang‐Hyub Han, Soon‐Ho Um, Seung Kew Yoon, Hye‐Ryon Kim, John Kim, Chung Ryeol Kim, Ching‐Lung Lai – 30 November 2009 – We aimed to determine the antiviral activity and safety of a new nucleotide analogue, LB80380, in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with lamivudine‐resistant virus. Sixty‐five patients with lamivudine‐resistant virus were randomized to receive five ascending daily doses (30, 60, 90, 150, 240 mg) of LB80380. LB80380 was given together with lamivudine for the first 4 weeks, followed by 8 weeks of LB80380 monotherapy.

Edmund J. Bini, Ponni V. Perumalswami – 30 November 2009 – Little is known about hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the United States. We prospectively enrolled 1,257 patients with chronic HCV infection from two medical centers in New York City. A total of 61.5% (95% confidence interval, 58.8%–64.2%) had evidence of prior exposure to HBV (hepatitis B core antibody–positive), whereas 5.8% (95% confidence interval, 4.5%–7.1%) had dual infection with HBV (hepatitis B surface antigen–positive).

Marcos Martínez‐Clemente, Natàlia Ferré, Ana González‐Périz, Marta López‐Parra, Raquel Horrillo, Esther Titos, Eva Morán‐Salvador, Rosa Miquel, Vicente Arroyo, Colin D. Funk, Joan Clària – 30 November 2009 – The actual risk factors that drive hepatic inflammation during the transition from steatosis to steatohepatitis are unknown. We recently demonstrated that hyperlipidemia‐prone apolipoprotein E–deficient (ApoE−/−) mice exhibit hepatic steatosis and increased susceptibility to hepatic inflammation and advanced fibrosis.

Francisca Molina‐Jiménez, Ignacio Benedicto, Miki Murata, Samuel Martín‐Vílchez, Toshihito Seki, José Antonio Pintor‐Toro, María Tortolero, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero, Kazuichi Okazaki, Kazuhiko Koike, José Luchi Barbero, Koichi Matsuzaki, Pedro L. Majano, Manuel López‐Cabrera – 30 November 2009 – Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is strongly associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the viral HBx protein plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of liver tumors.

Rossella Pellegrino, Diego F. Calvisi, Sara Ladu, Volker Ehemann, Tommaso Staniscia, Matthias Evert, Frank Dombrowski, Peter Schirmacher, Thomas Longerich – 30 November 2009 – Polo‐like kinase (PLK) proteins play critical roles in the control of cell cycle progression, either favoring or inhibiting cell proliferation, and in DNA damage response. Although either overexpression or down‐regulation of PLK proteins occurs frequently in various cancer types, no comprehensive analysis on their function in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been performed to date.