Mathis Heydtmann, David H. Adams – 28 January 2009 – Chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus, a noncytopathic hepatotropic RNA virus, affects over 170 million people worldwide. In the majority of cases, neither the early innate immune response nor the later adaptive immune response succeeds in clearing the virus, and the infection becomes chronic. Furthermore, in many patients, the ineffective inflammatory response drives fibrogenesis and the development of cirrhosis. It is critical to understand this immune pathology if preventative and curative therapies are to be developed.

Jennifer R. Gamble, Mathew A. Vadas – 28 January 2009

Masahiro Ohira, Minoru Ishifuro, Kentaro Ide, Toshimitsu Irei, Hirotaka Tashiro, Toshiyuki Itamoto, Katsuhide Ito, Kazuaki Chayama, Toshimasa Asahara, Hideki Ohdan – 28 January 2009 – Interferon (IFN) therapy with or without ribavirin treatment is well established as a standard antiviral treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV)–infected patients. However, susceptibility to thrombocytopenia is a major obstacle for initiating or continuing this therapy, particularly in liver transplant (LTx) recipients with HCV.

Seong Hoon Kim, Seong Yeon Cho, Kwang Woong Lee, Sang‐Jae Park, Sung‐Sik Han – 28 January 2009 – Innovations and refinements in the techniques of living donor right hepatectomy (LDRH) have been made over the past decades, but the type and size of abdominal incision have been at a standstill since its inception. We introduce herein the upper midline incision for LDRH using the standard open technique. A prospective case‐matched study was conducted on 23 consecutive donors who underwent LDRH under a supraumbilical upper midline incision (I group) from February to May 2008.

Binje Vick, Achim Weber, Toni Urbanik, Thorsten Maass, Andreas Teufel, Peter H. Krammer, Joseph T. Opferman, Marcus Schuchmann, Peter R. Galle, Henning Schulze‐Bergkamen – 28 January 2009 – Myeloid cell leukemia‐1 (Mcl‐1) is an antiapoptotic member of the Bcl‐2 protein family. It interacts with proapoptotic Bcl‐2 family members, thereby inhibiting mitochondrial activation and induction of apoptosis. Mcl‐1 is essential for embryonal development and the maintenance of B cells, T cells, and hematopoietic stem cells.

Yusuf Yilmaz, Osman Ozdogan – 28 January 2009

Hans Tillmann, Keyur Patel, John McHutchison – 28 January 2009

Peter Ferenci – 28 January 2009

Gyongyi Szabo – 28 January 2009

Nicholas J. Hand, Zankhana R. Master, John Le Lay, Joshua R. Friedman – 28 January 2009 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression through partial or complete complementarity with target messenger RNAs. The function of miRNAs in normal liver physiology is largely unknown. We address the role of Dicer1 in the differentiated liver. We derived mice lacking Dicer1 function in hepatocytes and assessed the loss of mature miRNA via quantitative polymerase chain reaction.