Rajat Singh, Yongjun Wang, Youqing Xiang, Kathryn E. Tanaka, William A. Gaarde, Mark J. Czaja – 28 December 2008 – Activation of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) has been implicated as a mechanism in the development of steatohepatitis. This finding, together with the reported role of JNK signaling in the development of obesity and insulin resistance, two components of the metabolic syndrome and predisposing factors for fatty liver disease, suggests that JNK may be a central mediator of the metabolic syndrome and an important therapeutic target in steatohepatitis.

Raj Vuppalanchi, Naga Chalasani – 28 December 2008 – Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is among the most common causes of chronic liver disease in the western world. It is now recognized that these patients have myriad of important co‐morbidities (e.g., diabetes, hypothyroidism and metabolic syndrome). The workup of patients with suspected NAFLD should consist of excluding competing etiologies and systemic evaluation of metabolic comorbidities. NAFLD is histologically categorized into steatosis and steatohepatitis, two states with fairly dichotomous natural history.

Haixin Yuan, Hong Zhang, Xunwei Wu, Zhe Zhang, Dan Du, Wenchao Zhou, Shuhua Zhou, Cord Brakebusch, Zhengjun Chen – 28 December 2008 – Cdc42, a member of the Rho guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) family, plays important roles in the regulation of the cytoskeleton, cell proliferation, cell polarity, and cellular transport, but little is known about its specific function in mammalian liver. We investigated the function of Cdc42 in regulating liver regeneration. Using a mouse model with liver‐specific knockout of Cdc42 (Cdc42LK), we studied liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy.

Jesús M. Banales, Tatyana V. Masyuk, Sergio A. Gradilone, Anatoliy I. Masyuk, Juan F. Medina, Nicholas F. LaRusso – 28 December 2008 – PCK rats, an animal model of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), develop cholangiocyte‐derived liver cysts associated with increased intracellular adenosine 3′,5′‐cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), the inhibition of which suppresses cyst growth.

Calogero Cammà, Salvatore Petta, Vito Di Marco, Fabrizio Bronte, Stefania Ciminnisi, Giusalba Licata, Sergio Peralta, Fabio Simone, Giulio Marchesini, Antonio Craxì – 28 December 2008 – Indirect methods to predict the presence of esophageal varices (EV) in patients with cirrhosis are not sensitive enough to be used as a surrogate for endoscopy. We tested the effectiveness of liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography and the presence of insulin resistance (IR), a marker associated with fibrosis progression, in the noninvasive prediction of portal hypertension.

Nancy Leung, Cheng‐Yuan Peng, Hie‐Won Hann, Jose Sollano, Judy Lao‐Tan, Chao‐Wei Hsu, Laurentius Lesmana, Man‐Fung Yuen, Lennox Jeffers, Morris Sherman, Albert Min, Kimberly Mencarini, Ulysses Diva, Anne Cross, Richard Wilber, Juan Lopez‐Talavera – 28 December 2008 – This study was undertaken to compare the early antiviral activity and viral kinetic profiles of entecavir (ETV) versus adefovir (ADV) in hepatitis B e antigen positive nucleoside‐naïve adults with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

Robert T. Russell, Irene D. Feurer, Panarut Wisawatapnimit, C. Wright Pinson – 24 December 2008 – Health utility instruments assess patients' valuation of specific health states, which can be converted to quality‐adjusted life years for cost‐utility analysis. Data from the EQ‐5D, a generic health‐related quality of life questionnaire from EuroQoL, can be reported as 5 health status scores or as a single health preference weight (HPW). US population–based HPWs were published by Shaw and colleagues in 2005 (Med Care 2005;43:203‐220).

Olivier de Rougemont, Philipp Dutkowski, Markus Weber, Pierre‐Alain Clavien – 24 December 2008 – On the basis of the growing evidence from randomized trials that routine prophylactic drainage is unnecessary in liver surgery or even harmful in chronic liver disease, we challenged the concept of prophylactic drainage in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Since September 2006, we omitted drains in every patient who underwent OLT, regardless of the procedure. Thirty‐five cadaveric OLTs were performed during a 12‐month period.

Walid M. El Moghazy, Mohammed S. Hedaya, Toshimi Kaido, Hiroto Egawa, Shinji Uemoto, Yasutsugu Takada – 24 December 2008 – The aim of this study was to compare the Cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA) with bipolar cautery (BP) to CUSA with a radiofrequency coagulator [TissueLink (TL)] in terms of efficacy and safety for hepatic transection in living donor liver transplantation. Twenty‐four living liver donors (n = 12 for each group) were randomized to undergo hepatic transection using CUSA with BP or CUSA with TL.

Nevin Yilmaz, Mitchell L. Shiffman – 24 December 2008