Henry L. Y. Chan – 28 January 2009

Judith M. Gottwein, Troels K. H. Scheel, Tanja B. Jensen, Jacob B. Lademann, Jannick C. Prentoe, Maria L. Knudsen, Anne M. Hoegh, Jens Bukh – 28 January 2009 – Six major hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes and numerous subtypes have been described, and recently a seventh major genotype was discovered. Genotypes show significant molecular and clinical differences, such as differential response to combination therapy with interferon‐α and ribavirin. Recently, HCV research has been accelerated by cell culture systems based on the unique growth capacity of strain JFH1 (genotype 2a).

Zhaoli Sun, Xiuying Zhang, Jayme E. Locke, Qizhi Zheng, Shingo Tachibana, Anna Mae Diehl, George Melville Williams – 28 January 2009 – Despite major histocompatibility complex incompatibility, liver transplants from Lewis rats to dark agouti (DA) rats survive indefinitely without immunosuppression, and the studies we report sought the mechanism(s) responsible for this. At 1 year, most of the liver reacted positively to host anti‐DA antibody. When small (50%) grafts were transplanted, recruitment was more rapid because most of the organ assumed the host phenotype at 3 months.

Darrell H. G. Crawford, Therese L. Murphy, Louise E. Ramm, Linda M. Fletcher, Andrew D. Clouston, Gregory J. Anderson, V. Nathan Subramaniam, Lawrie W. Powell, Grant A. Ramm – 28 January 2009 – Diagnosing the presence of cirrhosis is crucial for the management of patients with C282Y hereditary hemochromatosis (HH). HH patients with serum ferritin >1,000 μg/L are at risk of cirrhosis; however, the majority of these patients do not have cirrhosis.

Robert Perrillo – 28 January 2009 – Prophylactic therapy is generally used to prevent reactivated hepatitis B after transplantation of an antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc)–positive liver. To gain insight into current practice, a questionnaire was e‐mailed to 89 liver transplant physicians in the United States, Europe, and Asia/Australia and 4 hepatitis B experts. Addressees were asked if they prefer lamivudine or other nucleoside analogs and whether these drugs are used indefinitely.

Jerome M. Laurence, Chuanmin Wang, Maolin Zheng, Sharon Cunningham, John Earl, Szun Szun Tay, Richard D. M. Allen, Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Ian E. Alexander, G. Alex Bishop, Alexandra F. Sharland – 28 January 2009 – The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of local overexpression of indoleamine dioxygenase (IDO) to abrogate rat liver transplant rejection by the use of an adeno‐associated virus vector [recombinant adeno‐associated virus 2/8 (rAAV2/8)] to deliver the transgene to the allograft prior to transplantation.

Sven A. Lang, Christian Moser, Stefan Fichnter‐Feigl, Philipp Schachtschneider, Claus Hellerbrand, Volker Schmitz, Hans J. Schlitt, Edward K. Geissler, Oliver Stoeltzing – 28 January 2009 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains associated with a poor prognosis, but novel targeted therapies in combination with anti‐angiogenic substances may offer new perspectives. We hypothesized that simultaneous targeting of tumor cells, endothelial cells, and pericytes would reduce growth and angiogenesis of HCC, which represents a highly vascularized tumor entity.

Weici Zhang, Rahul Sharma, Shyr‐Te Ju, Xiao‐Song He, Yanyan Tao, Koichi Tsuneyama, Zhigang Tian, Zhe‐Xiong Lian, Shu Man Fu, M. Eric Gershwin – 28 January 2009 – There have been several descriptions of mouse models that manifest select immunological and clinical features of autoimmune cholangitis with similarities to primary biliary cirrhosis in humans. Some of these models require immunization with complete Freund's adjuvant, whereas others suggest that a decreased frequency of T regulatory cells (Tregs) facilitates spontaneous disease.

Yun Ku Cho, Jae Kyun Kim, Mi Young Kim, Hyunchul Rhim, Joon Koo Han – 28 January 2009 – According to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines, percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) is a safe and highly effective treatment for small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) and should be the standard against which any new therapy is compared. The primary purpose of this study was to identify survival benefit of any percutaneous ablation therapy as compared with PEI in the treatment of patients with unresectable HCC.

Dou‐Sheng Bai, Zhi Dai, Jian Zhou, Yin‐Kun Liu, Shuang‐Jian Qiu, Chang‐Jun Tan, Ying‐Hong Shi, Cheng Huang, Zheng Wang, Yi‐Feng He, Jia Fan – 28 January 2009 – Liver transplantation (LT) is one of the best therapeutic options for nonresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Unfortunately, some HCC patients succumb to the disease after LT, which reduces long‐ and medium‐term survival.