Akihide Kamiya, Sei Kakinuma, Masafumi Onodera, Atsushi Miyajima, Hiromitsu Nakauchi – 20 June 2008 – During early to late‐fetal liver development, bipotential hepatoblasts proliferate and differentiate into hepatocytes and cholangiocytes. The prospero‐related homeobox 1 gene (Prox1) is expressed in hepatoblasts, and the inactivation of Prox1 causes defective early liver development, in particular, faulty migration of fetal hepatoblasts. Prox1 binds to another hepatocyte‐enriched transcription factor, liver receptor homolog 1 (Lrh1), and suppresses its transcriptional activity.

Elke M. Hennes, Mikio Zeniya, Albert. J. Czaja, Albert Parés, George N. Dalekos, Edward L. Krawitt, Paulo L. Bittencourt, Gilda Porta, Kirsten M. Boberg, Harald Hofer, Francesco B. Bianchi, Minoru Shibata, Christoph Schramm, Barbara Eisenmann de Torres, Peter R. Galle, Ian McFarlane, Hans‐Peter Dienes, Ansgar W. Lohse, International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group – 20 June 2008 – Diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) may be challenging. However, early diagnosis is important because immunosuppression is life‐saving.

Ze‐Zhou Song – 20 June 2008

David Q.‐H. Wang, Sum P. Lee – 20 June 2008 – Although many putative sterol transporters influencing cholesterol absorption and physical–chemical factors affecting dietary cholesterol absorption have been extensively investigated, it is still unclear how biliary cholesterol contributes to the regulation of intestinal cholesterol absorption. We studied whether the gallbladder can modulate the microaggregates of cholesterol carriers, which may in turn influence the intestinal absorption of biliary cholesterol.

Morris Sherman, Cihan Yurdaydin, Halis Simsek, Marcelo Silva, Yun‐Fan Liaw, Vinod K. Rustgi, Hoel Sette, Naoky Tsai, Daniel J. Tenney, James Vaughan, Bruce Kreter, Robert Hindes, AI463026 Benefits of Entecavir for Hepatitis B Liver Disease (BEHoLD) Study Group – 20 June 2008 – In hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)‐positive chronic hepatitis B patients who were refractory to current lamivudine therapy, switching to entecavir was superior to continued lamivudine at week 48 for histologic improvement, viral load reduction by polymerase chain reaction and alanine aminotransferase normalization.

Carlo La Vecchia – 20 June 2008

Paloma Sanz‐Cameno, Samuel Martín‐Vílchez, Yolanda Rodriguez‐Muñoz, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero – 20 June 2008

Yuxia Zhang, Ping Xu, Kyungtae Park, Yunhee Choi, David D. Moore, Li Wang – 20 June 2008 – The small heterodimer partner (SHP; NROB2), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, contributes to the biological regulation of several major functions of the liver. However, the role of SHP in cellular proliferation and tumorigenesis has not been investigated before. Here we report that SHP negatively regulates tumorigenesis both in vivo and in vitro.

Paul J. Pockros, David Nelson, Eliot Godofsky, Maribel Rodriguez‐Torres, Gregory T. Everson, Michael W. Fried, Reem Ghalib, Stephen Harrison, Lisa Nyberg, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Isabel Najera, Anna Chan, George Hill – 20 June 2008 – R1626, a prodrug of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA polymerase inhibitor R1479, showed time‐dependent and dose‐dependent reduction of HCV RNA levels in a previous study. The present study evaluated the efficacy and safety of R1626 administered for 4 weeks in combination with peginterferon alfa‐2a ± ribavirin in HCV genotype 1‐infected treatment‐naive patients.

Eric Delwart – 20 June 2008