Phunchai Charatcharoenwitthaya, Paul Angulo, Felicity B. Enders, Keith D. Lindor – 26 December 2007 – A longitudinal, cohort study was performed to characterize the clinical features of patients with small‐duct primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) occurring with and without inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and to determine the influence of IBD and the effect of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) therapy on the course of the liver disease. Forty‐two patients with small‐duct PSC (14 women and 28 men; mean age, 36.7 ± 13.3 years) were followed for up to 24.9 years.

Espen Melum, Tom H. Karlsen, Erik Schrumpf, Annika Bergquist, Erik Thorsby, Kirsten M. Boberg, Benedicte A. Lie – 26 December 2007 – Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is often complicated by the development of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Genetic variation of natural killer cell receptor G2D (NKG2D) has been associated with cancer susceptibility. An important ligand for NKG2D, major histocompatibility complex class I chain‐related molecule A (MICA), serves as a marker of cellular stress. The 5.1 allele of the gene encoding MICA has been associated with PSC.

Udayan Apte, Michael D. Thompson, Shanshan Cui, Bowen Liu, Benjamin Cieply, Satdarshan P. S. Monga – 26 December 2007 – Adult hepatic stem cells or oval cells are facultative stem cells in the liver that are activated during regeneration only during inhibition of innate hepatocyte proliferation. On the basis of its involvement in liver cancer, regeneration, and development, we investigated the role of the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway in oval cell response, which was initiated in male Fisher rats with 2‐acetylaminofluorine and two‐third partial hepatectomy (PHX).

Brenda J. Olivier, Ton Schoenmaker, Reina E. Mebius, Vincent Everts, Chris J. Mulder, Karin M. J. van Nieuwkerk, Teun J. de Vries, Schalk W. van der Merwe – 26 December 2007 – Osteoporosis is a common complication of chronic liver disease, and the underlying mechanisms are not understood. We aimed to determine if osteoclasts develop from osteoclast precursors in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of chronic liver disease patients with osteopenia compared with controls.

Jennifer M. Timpe, Zania Stamataki, Adam Jennings, Ke Hu, Michelle J. Farquhar, Helen J. Harris, Anne Schwarz, Isabelle Desombere, Geert Leroux Roels, Peter Balfe, Jane A. McKeating – 26 December 2007 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection of Huh‐7.5 hepatoma cells results in focal areas of infection where transmission is potentiated by cell‐cell contact. To define route(s) of transmission, HCV was allowed to infect hepatoma cells in the presence or absence of antibodies that neutralize cell‐free virus infectivity.

Laura M. Kulik, Brian I. Carr, Mary F. Mulcahy, Robert J. Lewandowski, Bassel Atassi, Robert K. Ryu, Kent T. Sato, Al Benson, Albert A. Nemcek, Vanessa L. Gates, Michael Abecassis, Reed A. Omary, Riad Salem – 26 December 2007 – This study was undertaken to present data from a phase 2 study in which patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with and without portal vein thrombosis underwent radioembolization with Yttrium (90Y) microspheres.

Jae‐Sung Kim, Takashi Nitta, Dagmara Mohuczy, Kerri A. O'Malley, Lyle L. Moldawer, William A. Dunn, Kevin E. Behrns – 20 December 2007 – Autophagy selectively removes abnormal or damaged organelles such as dysfunctional mitochondria. The mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) is a marker of impaired mitochondrial function that is evident in hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and autophagy in I/R injury is unknown.

Anita C.G. Chua, Carly E. Herbison, Sarah F. Drake, Ross M. Graham, John K. Olynyk, Debbie Trinder – 20 December 2007 – HFE‐related hereditary hemochromatosis results in hepatic iron overload. Hepatocytes acquire transferrin‐bound iron via transferrin receptor (Tfr) 1 and Tfr1‐independent pathways (possibly Tfr2‐mediated). In this study, the role of Hfe in the regulation of hepatic transferrin‐bound iron uptake by these pathways was investigated using Hfe knockout mice.

M. Michele Manos, Wendy A. Leyden, Rosemary C. Murphy, Norah A. Terrault, Beth P. Bell – 20 December 2007 – Standard death certificate–based methods for ascertaining deaths due to chronic liver disease (CLD), such as the U.S. vital statistics approach, rely on a limited set of diagnostic codes to define CLD. These codes do not include viral hepatitis or consider hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) deaths, and thus, underestimate the true burden of CLD mortality. Deaths associated with CLD may be further misunderstood because of the inherent limitations of death record information.

Flavien Bernardin, Leslie Tobler, Irina Walsh, Joan Dunn Williams, Mike Busch, Eric Delwart – 20 December 2007 – We determined whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA could be detected associated with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of seropositive blood donors who had spontaneously or therapeutically cleared their plasma viremia. Blood donor plasma viremia status was first determined with a highly sensitive transcription‐mediated amplification (TMA) test performed in duplicate assays.