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.

Shelly C. Lu – 9 December 2009

Hao Yin, Linling Cheng, Michael Holt, Numsen Hail, Robert MacLaren, Cynthia Ju – 30 November 2009 – Acetaminophen‐induced liver injury (AILI) is a significant health problem and represents the most frequent cause of drug‐induced liver failure in the United States. The development and implementation of successful therapeutic intervention strategies have been demanding, due to significant limitations associated with the current treatment for AILI. Lactoferrin (Lac), a glycoprotein present in milk, has been demonstrated to possess a multitude of biological functions.

Jian Yao, Linhui Liang, Shenglin Huang, Jie Ding, Ning Tan, Yingjun Zhao, Mingxia Yan, Chao Ge, Zhenfeng Zhang, Taoyang Chen, Dafang Wan, Ming Yao, Jinjun Li, Jianren Gu, Xianghuo He – 30 November 2009 – The pathological relevance and significance of microRNAs (miRNAs) in hepatocarcinogenesis have attracted much attention in recent years; however, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms through which miRNAs are involved in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.