Kinji Asahina, Shirley Y. Tsai, Peng Li, Mamoru Ishii, Robert E. Maxson, Henry M. Sucov, Hidekazu Tsukamoto – 24 February 2009 – The knowledge concerning fetal hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is scarce, and their cell lineage and functions are largely unknown. The current study isolated fetal liver mesenchymal cells from a mouse expressing β‐galactosidase under the control of Msx2 promoter by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting (FACS) and surveyed marker genes by microarray analysis.

Valérie Paradis, Stéphane Zalinski, Emna Chelbi, Nathalie Guedj, Françoise Degos, Valérie Vilgrain, Pierre Bedossa, Jacques Belghiti – 24 February 2009 – Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a newly identified risk factor in chronic liver disease (CLD) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to analyze the pathological characteristics of HCC and nontumoral liver in patients with MS as the only risk factor for liver disease in comparison with those that developed in the course of other CLDs in order to provide further insight into the physiopathology of HCC associated with MS.

Feng Hong, Svetlana Radaeva, Hong‐na Pan, Zhigang Tian, Richard Veech, Bin Gao – 23 February 2009 – Fatty liver, formerly associated predominantly with excessive alcohol intake, is now also recognized as a complication of obesity and an important precursor state to more severe forms of liver pathology including ischemia/reperfusion injury. No standard protocol for treating fatty liver exists at this time.

Kenichi Harada, Kazuo Ohba, Satoru Ozaki, Kumiko Isse, Toshiya Hirayama, Akihiro Wada, Yasuni Nakanuma – 23 February 2009 – Human beta‐defensins (hBDs) are important antimicrobial peptides that contribute to innate immunity at mucosal surfaces. This study was undertaken to investigate the expression of hBD‐1 and hBD‐2 in intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells in specimens of human liver, and 4 cultured cell lines (2 consisting of biliary epithelial cells and 2 cholangiocarcinoma cells). In addition, hBD‐1 and hBD‐2 were assayed in specimens of bile.

Douglas M. Heuman, Souheil G. Abou‐assi, Adil Habib, Leslie M. Williams, R. Todd Stravitz, Arun J. Sanyal, Robert A. Fisher, Anastasios A. Mihas – 23 February 2009 – Despite the adoption of “sickest first” liver transplantation, pretransplant death remains common, and many early deaths occur despite initially low Model for End‐stage Liver Disease (MELD) scores. From 1997–2003, we studied 507 cirrhotic United States veterans referred for consideration of liver transplantation to identify additional predictors of early mortality.

Zhenyuan Song, Zhanxiang Zhou, Silvia Uriarte, Lipeng Wang, Y. James Kang, Theresa Chen, Shirish Barve, Craig J. McClain – 23 February 2009 – In alcoholic liver disease, tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNFα) is a critical effector molecule, and abnormal methionine metabolism is a fundamental acquired metabolic abnormality. Although hepatocytes are resistant to TNFα‐induced killing under normal circumstances, previous studies have shown that primary hepatocytes from rats chronically fed alcohol have increased TNFα cytotoxicity.

Maryline Mancini‐Bourgine, Hélène Fontaine, Daniel Scott‐Algara, Stanislas Pol, Christian Bréchot, Marie‐Louise Michel – 23 February 2009 – Despite the availability of effective hepatitis B vaccines for many years, over 370 million people remain persistently infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Viral persistence is thought to be related to poor HBV‐specific T‐cell responses. A phase I clinical trial was performed in chronic HBV carriers to investigate whether HBV DNA vaccination could restore T‐cell responsiveness.

Ai‐Wu Ke, Guo‐Ming Shi, Jian Zhou, Fei‐Zhen Wu, Zhen‐Bin Ding, Mei‐Yu Hu, Yang Xu, Zheng‐Ji Song, Zhi‐Jun Wang, Jin‐Cai Wu, Dou‐Sheng Bai, Jia‐chu Li, Kang‐Da Liu, Jia Fan – 28 January 2009 – It has been reported that tetraspanin CD151 acts as a promoter of metastasis in several tumors and plays an important role in c‐Met/hepatocyte growth factor signaling. However, the role of CD151 alone and coexpression of CD151/c‐Met in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear.

Melanie Eichenmüller, Ivonne Gruner, Beate Hagl, Beate Häberle, Josef Müller‐Höcker, Dietrich von Schweinitz, Roland Kappler – 28 January 2009 – Recent evidence has indicated that Hedgehog (Hh) signaling significantly contributes to liver development and regeneration and that activation of the pathway may contribute to growth of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adults. However, the role of Hh signaling in pediatric liver tumors remains to be elucidated.

Nora Bijl, Cindy P. A. A. van Roomen, Vassilis Triantis, Milka Sokolovic, Roelof Ottenhoff, Saskia Scheij, Marco van Eijk, Rolf G. Boot, Johannes M. Aerts, Albert K. Groen – 28 January 2009 – Recent reports indicate that glycosphingolipids play an important role in regulation of carbohydrate metabolism. We have shown that the iminosugar N‐(5′‐adamantane‐1′‐yl‐methoxy)‐pentyl‐1‐deoxynojirimycin (AMP‐DNM), an inhibitor of the enzyme glucosylceramide synthase, is a potent enhancer of insulin signaling in rodent models for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.