Federico N. Aucejo, Koji Hashimoto, Cristiano Quintini, Dympna Kelly, David Vogt, Charles Winans, Bijan Eghtesad, Mark Baker, John Fung, Charles Miller – 27 December 2007 – Ligation of portosystemic shunts in patients with cirrhosis undergoing liver transplantation has been recommended to avoid insufficient portal vein (PV) flow. Shunts are not always recognized pretransplantation because intraoperative PV flow assessment is not routinely attempted.

Alejandro Forner, Jordi Bruix – 27 December 2007

Hugo R. Rosen, Derek G. Doherty, Laura Madrigal‐Estebas, Cliona O'Farrelly, Lucy Golden‐Mason – 27 December 2007 – Cluster of differentiation (CD)56+ lymphocytes are believed to play important roles in the innate immune response to viral infections by production of interferon (IFN)‐γ and/or the recognition of virally infected cells, but their role in liver transplantation (LT) has not been characterized. Here, for the first time, we examine the phenotypic and functional features of these cells in patients undergoing LT for hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐related liver failure.

Vishal Bhagat, Julie A. Foont, Eugene R. Schiff, Arie Regev – 27 December 2007 – Spontaneous resolution of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is exceedingly rare and poorly understood. As HCV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have shared routes of transmission, HCV coinfection is estimated to affect 15%‐30% of the HIV‐positive population. We report 2 patients with HCV‐HIV coinfection who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation at our center and had spontaneous clearance of their chronic HCV infection after transplantation without any anti‐HCV treatment.

Evangelos Cholongitas, James O'Beirne, Alex Betrossian, Marco Senzolo, Steve Shaw, David Patch, Andrew K. Burroughs – 27 December 2007

Lisa I. Backus, Derek B. Boothroyd, Barbara R. Phillips, Larry A. Mole – 27 December 2007

Weiwei Shan, Christopher J. Nicol, Shinji Ito, Moses T. Bility, Mary J. Kennett, Jerrold M. Ward, Frank J. Gonzalez, Jeffrey M. Peters – 26 December 2007 – Potential functional roles for the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐β/δ (PPARβ/δ) in skeletal muscle fatty acid catabolism and epithelial carcinogenesis have recently been described. Whereas PPARβ/δ is expressed in liver, its function in this tissue is less clear.

Florence Wong, Kevin Moore, Jasper Dingemanse, Rajiv Jalan – 26 December 2007 – Renal vasoconstriction is a key factor in the development of hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) and may be secondary to increased activities of endothelin‐1, a potent renal vasoconstrictor.

Yuan Zhai, Bo Qiao, Feng Gao, Xiuda Shen, Andrew Vardanian, Ronald W. Busuttil, Jerzy W. Kupiec‐Weglinski – 26 December 2007 – We have documented the key role of toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation and its signaling pathway mediated by interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 3, in the induction of inflammation leading to the hepatocellular damage during liver ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Because type I IFN is the major downstream activation product of that pathway, we studied its role in comparison with IFN‐γ.

Gianluca Perseghin, Guido Lattuada, Francesco De Cobelli, Antonio Esposito, Elena Belloni, Georgia Ntali, Francesca Ragogna, Tamara Canu, Paola Scifo, Alessandro Del Maschio, Livio Luzi – 26 December 2007 – Fatty liver is characterized by metabolic abnormalities at the liver, but also at skeletal muscle and adipose tissue sites.