Piero Portincasa, Agostino Di Ciaula, Helen H. Wang, Giuseppe Palasciano, Karel J. van Erpecum, Antonio Moschetta, David Q.‐H. Wang – 7 January 2008 – Gallstones are one of the most common digestive diseases with an estimated prevalence of 10%‐15% in adults living in the western world, where cholesterol‐enriched gallstones represent 75%‐80% of all gallstones. In cholesterol gallstone disease, the gallbladder becomes the target organ of a complex metabolic disease.

Rebecca G. Wells – 7 January 2008 – Matrix stiffness (resistance to deformation), one of the many mechanical forces acting on cells, is increasingly appreciated as an important mediator of cell behavior. It regulates cell signaling broadly, with effects on growth, survival, and motility. Although the stiffness optima for different kinds of adherent cells vary widely, it is generally true that cell proliferation and differentiation increase with the stiffness of the matrix.

Kirk J. Wangensteen, Andrew Wilber, Vincent W. Keng, Zhiying He, Ilze Matise, Laura Wangensteen, Corey M. Carson, Yixin Chen, Clifford J. Steer, R. Scott McIvor, David A. Largaespada, Xin Wang, Stephen C. Ekker – 7 January 2008 – Current techniques for the alteration of gene expression in the liver have a number of limitations, including the lack of stable somatic gene transfer and the technical challenges of germline transgenesis. Rapid and stable genetic engineering of the liver would allow systematic, in vivo testing of contributions by many genes to disease.

Dominique Charles Valla – 7 January 2008

Guoli Dai, Lin He, Pengli Bu, Yu‐Jui Yvonne Wan – 31 December 2007 – Pregnane X receptor (PXR) mediates xenobiotic and endobiotic metabolism as well as hepatocyte proliferation. To determine the role of PXR in liver regeneration, 2/3 partial hepatectomy (PH) was performed on wild‐type and PXR‐null mice. Our results showed that hepatic steatosis was markedly suppressed in mice lacking PXR 36 hours after PH, concomitant with reduction of hepatocyte proliferation at the same time point.

C. Bart Rountree, Shantha Senadheera, Jose M. Mato, Gay M. Crooks, Shelly C. Lu – 31 December 2007 – Methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) is an essential enzyme that catalyzes the biosynthesis of S‐adenosylmethionine. Hepatic MAT activity falls in chronic liver diseases, and mice lacking Mat1a are predisposed to liver injury and develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) spontaneously by 18 months. The current work examined the hypothesis that liver cancer stem cells contribute to HCC in this model.

Jason T. Blackard, M. Tarek Shata, Norah J. Shire, Kenneth E. Sherman – 27 December 2007

Stefano Ballestri, Amedeo Lonardo, Lucia Carulli, Matteo Ricchi, Lorena Bertozzi, Giorgio De Santis, Mario Bondi, Paola Loria – 27 December 2007

Andrew J. Fowell, R. Christopher Benyon – 27 December 2007

Theodore H. Welling, David G. Heidt, Michael J. Englesbe, John C. Magee, Randall S. Sung, Darrell A. Campbell, Jeffrey D. Punch, Shawn J. Pelletier – 27 December 2007 – Biliary complications remain a significant problem following liver transplantation in the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) era. We hypothesized that donor, recipient, and technical variables may differentially affect anastomotic biliary complications in MELD era liver transplants.