Marion G. Peters – 27 April 2009 – Treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection who have advanced disease or comorbidities can be challenging, and recommendations may differ from standard guidelines. Among the special populations that merit specific consideration are patients with compensated or decompensated cirrhosis, organ transplantation, acute hepatitis B, pregnancy, coinfection with hepatitis C and/or D virus, chronic renal failure, and children.

Michael G. Ison, John J. Friedewald – 27 April 2009

Monica Basso, Edoardo G. Giannini, Francesco Torre, Sabrina Blanchi, Vincenzo Savarino, Antonino Picciotto – 27 April 2009 – The incidence and clinical meaning of elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in chronic hepatitis C patients who are hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐RNA negative during pegylated interferon (PEG‐IFN) and ribavirin therapy have not been completely characterized.

Laurie D. DeLeve, Dominique‐Charles Valla, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao – 27 April 2009

T. Jake Liang – 27 April 2009 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infects more than 300 million people worldwide and is a common cause of liver disease and liver cancer. HBV, a member of the Hepadnaviridae family, is a small DNA virus with unusual features similar to retroviruses. HBV replicates through an RNA intermediate and can integrate into the host genome. The unique features of the HBV replication cycle confer a distinct ability of the virus to persist in infected cells.

Pei‐Chun Tsai, Tz‐Win Fu, Yi‐Ming Arthur Chen, Tsui‐Ling Ko, Tien‐Hua Chen, Yang‐Hsin Shih, Shih‐Chieh Hung, Yu‐Show Fu – 27 April 2009 – We investigated the effect of human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) from Wharton's jelly on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)–induced liver fibrosis in rats. Rats were treated with CCl4 for 4 weeks, and this was followed by a direct injection of HUMSCs into their livers.

Kim M. Olthoff – 27 April 2009

M. Isabel Fiel, Thomas Schiano – 27 April 2009

Sharon R. Lewin, Ruy M. Ribeiro, Anchalee Avihingsanon, Scott Bowden, Gail Matthews, Pip Marks, Stephen A. Locarnini, Kiat Ruxrungtham, Alan S. Perelson, Gregory J. Dore – 27 March 2009 – Following treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), there is a biphasic clearance of HBV, similar to that seen following treatment of human immunodeficiency virus‐1 (HIV‐1) and hepatitis C virus.

Shuai Li, Hanjiang Fu, Yulan Wang, Yi Tie, Ruiyun Xing, Jie Zhu, Zhixian Sun, Lixin Wei, Xiaofei Zheng – 27 March 2009 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been proposed as a versatile class of molecules involved in regulation of various biological processes. Although there is emerging evidence that some microRNAs can function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, the specific role of miRNA in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear at this point.