Javier García‐Samaniego, Xavier Forns – 24 August 2007

Juan A. Pineda, José A. García‐García, Manuela Aguilar‐Guisado, María J. Ríos‐Villegas, Josefa Ruiz‐Morales, Antonio Rivero, José del Valle, Rafael Luque, Jesús Rodríguez‐Baño, Mercedes González‐Serrano, Angela Camacho, Juan Macías, Israel Grilo, Jesús M. Gómez‐Mateos, Grupo para el Estudio de las Hepatitis Víricas de la Sociedad Andaluza de Enfermedades Infecciosas (SAEI) – 24 August 2007 – Little is known about the natural history of liver disease in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐coinfected subjects under highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Swati Joshi‐Barve, Shirish S. Barve, Kiranmayi Amancherla, Leila Gobejishvili, Daniell Hill, Matthew Cave, Prachi Hote, Craig J. McClain – 24 August 2007 – Obesity and the metabolic syndrome are closely correlated with hepatic steatosis. Simple hepatic steatosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can be a precursor to more serious liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Julia Ewaschuk, Ryan Endersby, David Thiel, Hugo Diaz, Jody Backer, Mang Ma, Thomas Churchill, Karen Madsen – 24 August 2007 – A breakdown in intestinal barrier function and increased bacterial translocation are key events in the pathogenesis of sepsis and liver disease. Altering gut microflora with noninvasive and immunomodulatory probiotic organisms has been proposed as an adjunctive therapy to reduce the level of bacterial translocation and prevent the onset of sepsis.

Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, Arun J. Sanyal, Norman D. Grace, William Carey, Practice Guidelines Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the Practice Parameters Committee of the American College of Gastroenterology – 24 August 2007

Frank Grünhage, Monica Acalovschi, Simona Tirziu, Maja Walier, Thomas F. Wienker, Anca Ciocan, Ofelia Mosteanu, Tilman Sauerbruch, Frank Lammert – 24 August 2007 – Genomewide scans of inbred strains of mice have linked the genes encoding the hepatocanalicular cholesterol transporter ABCG5/G8 to gallstone formation. Five nonsynonymous coding single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the orthologous human genes are associated with differences in serum cholesterol and plant sterol levels. We now tested these ABCG5/G8 SNPs for linkage and association with gallstone susceptibility in humans.

Evangelos Kalaitzakis, Einar Björnsson – 24 August 2007

Radha K. Dhiman, Ajay Duseja, Yogesh K. Chawla – 24 August 2007

Rajeshwar P. Mookerjee, Vanessa Stadlbauer, Sukhwinderjit Lidder, Gavin A.K. Wright, Stephen J. Hodges, Nathan A. Davies, Rajiv Jalan – 24 August 2007 – Mortality in patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH) remains high, and although corticosteroids are widely used for treatment, the results vary considerably. In AH, neutrophils are primed and infiltrate the liver to produce injury, but paradoxically, the main cause of death in such patients is infection. Our prospective study addressed this paradox of primed neutrophils on the one hand and increased risk of infection on the other.

Gloria Lena Vega, Manisha Chandalia, Lidia S. Szczepaniak, Scott M. Grundy – 24 August 2007 – Nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis associates with a clustering of metabolic risk factors and steatohepatitis. One risk factor for hepatic steatosis is obesity, but other factors likely play a role. We examined metabolic concomitants of hepatic steatosis in nonobese and obese men and women. Sixty‐one obese women and 35 obese men were studied; both those with and without hepatic steatosis were compared against each other and against nonobese controls (17 women and 32 men) without hepatic steatosis.