Roberto de Franchis, Glenn M. Eisen, Loren Laine, Inaki Fernandez‐Urien, Juan Manuel Herrerias, Russell D. Brown, Laurel Fisher, Hugo E. Vargas, John Vargo, Julie Thompson, Rami Eliakim – 21 January 2008 – Bleeding from esophageal varices (EV) is a serious consequence of portal hypertension. Current guidelines recommend screening patients with cirrhosis with esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) to detect varices. However, the unpleasantness and need for sedation of EGD may limit adherence to screening programs.

Pallavi Singh, Zeynep Z. Coskun, Catriona Goode, Adam Dean, LuAnn Thompson‐Snipes, Gretchen Darlington – 21 January 2008 – Immune dysregulation and inflammation play a major role in the pathology of age‐related disorders. In an earlier study, the microarray data from our laboratory indicated an increase in inflammation‐related gene expression in the liver with age. We further investigated immune‐related changes in the aged liver and found that the levels of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and inflammatory genes were higher in aged animals.

Clifford S. Guy, Sherri L. Rankin, Jinguo Wang, Tomasz I. Michalak – 21 January 2008 – The liver displays unique immunological properties including the ability to remove aberrant cells and pathogens and to induce peripheral immunotolerance. We have previously demonstrated that hepatocytes can cause cell death by a CD95 ligand–mediated mechanism. Here, we provide evidence that hepatocytes can kill other cells via a perforin‐dependent pathway.

Roman E. Perri, Michael V. Chiorean, Jeff L. Fidler, Joel G. Fletcher, Jayant A. Talwalkar, Linda Stadheim, Nilay D. Shah, Patrick S. Kamath – 21 January 2008 – Patients with cirrhosis require endoscopic screening for large esophageal varices. The aims of this study were to determine the cost‐effectiveness and patient preferences of a strategy employing abdominal computerized tomography (CT) as the initial screening test for identifying large esophageal varices. In a prospective evaluation,102 patients underwent both CT and endoscopic screening for gastroesophageal varices.

Yongke Lu, Jian Zhuge, Xiaodong Wang, Jingxiang Bai, Arthur I. Cederbaum – 21 January 2008 – Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) is suggested to play a role in alcoholic liver disease, which includes alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and alcoholic cirrhosis. In this study, we investigated whether CYP2E1 plays a role in experimental alcoholic fatty liver in an oral ethanol‐feeding model. After 4 weeks of ethanol feeding, macrovesicular fat accumulation and accumulation of triglyceride in liver were observed in wild‐type mice but not in CYP2E1‐knockout mice.

Xinping Tan, Youzhong Yuan, Gang Zeng, Udayan Apte, Michael D. Thompson, Benjamin Cieply, Donna B. Stolz, George K. Michalopoulos, Klaus H. Kaestner, Satdarshan P.S. Monga – 21 January 2008 – β‐Catenin, the central component of the canonical Wnt pathway, plays important roles in the processes of liver regeneration, growth, and cancer. Previously, we identified temporal expression of β‐catenin during liver development.

Nissa Erickson, Sujit Kumar Mohanty, Pranavkumar Shivakumar, Gregg Sabla, Ranajit Chakraborty, Jorge A. Bezerra – 21 January 2008 – Biliary atresia is a fibro‐inflammatory cholangiopathy that obstructs the extrahepatic bile ducts in young infants. Although the pathogenesis of the disease is undefined, studies in livers from affected children and neonatal mice with experimental biliary atresia have shown increased expression of proapoptosis molecules. Therefore, we hypothesized that apoptosis is a significant mechanism of injury to duct epithelium.

Nathan A. Johnson, David W. Walton, Toos Sachinwalla, Campbell H. Thompson, Kate Smith, Patricia A. Ruell, Stephen R. Stannard, Jacob George – 21 January 2008 – Nonalcoholic fatty liver is frequently observed in obese individuals, yet the factors that predict its development and progression to liver disease are poorly understood. We proposed that proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐MRS) might allow noninvasive assessment of hepatic lipid composition.

Reiichiro Kuwahara, Alexander V. Kofman, Charles S. Landis, E. Scott Swenson, Els Barendswaard, Neil D. Theise – 21 January 2008 – Label retention assays remain the state‐of‐the‐art approach to identify the location of intraorgan epithelial stem cell niches, in situ and in vivo. They are commonly used in organs with rapid cell turnover but have not been applied to the liver, where cell turnover is very slow.

Carl J. Baldick, Daniel J. Tenney, Charles E. Mazzucco, Betsy J. Eggers, Ronald E. Rose, Kevin A. Pokornowski, Cheng F. Yu, Richard J. Colonno – 14 January 2008 – Virologic resistance emerging during entecavir (ETV) therapy for hepatitis B virus (HBV) requires three substitutions in the viral reverse transcriptase (RT), signifying a high barrier to resistance.