Nathalie Ganne‐Carrié, Marianne Ziol, Victor de Ledinghen, Catherine Douvin, Patrick Marcellin, Laurent Castera, Daniel Dhumeaux, Jean‐Claude Trinchet, Michel Beaugrand – 28 November 2006 – A proper diagnosis of cirrhosis is essential for the management of patients with chronic liver diseases. We assessed the accuracy of liver stiffness measurement by Fibroscan for the diagnosis of cirrhosis in 1,257 patients with chronic liver diseases of various causes enrolled in a prospective multicenter study as well as clarified causes of discrepancies between liver histology and Fibroscan.

Mary Amanda Dew, Andrea F. DiMartini – 28 November 2006

Harald Schrem, Moritz Kleine, Jürgen Borlak, Jürgen Klempnauer – 28 November 2006 – In fulminant hepatic failure, the use of bioartificial liver support (BAL) with porcine hepatocytes is the subject of a current and controversial debate.1 Specifically, the issue of cross‐species physiological incompatibilities has not been addressed so far. We therefore investigated the effects of species‐specific cytokines in single and cocultures on hepatocyte function. Hepatocyte cultures were isolated from human resection specimens and from Landrace pigs.

Song‐Qing He, Yan‐Hong Zhang, Senthil K. Venugopal, Christopher W. Dicus, Richard V. Perez, Rajen Ramsamooj, Michael H. Nantz, Mark A. Zern, Jian Wu – 28 November 2006 – Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is characterized by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide anions and hydrogen peroxide. The aim of this study is to investigate whether antioxidative gene delivery by our polylipid nanoparticles (PLNP) is an effective approach for prevention of the injury.

28 November 2006

James D. Perkins – 28 November 2006

Patricia M. Lopez, Augusto Villanueva, Sasan Roayaie, Josep M. Llovet – 28 November 2006

Sébastien Dharancy, Benoît Catteau, Laurent Mortier, Emmanuel Boleslawski, Nicole Declerck, Valérie Canva, Frédéric Piette, Philippe Mathurin, François René Pruvot – 28 November 2006 – Dermatological complications following transplantation are very common and the majority of immunosuppressed transplant recipients develop some to many warts due to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In the setting of immunosuppression, therapeutic management may be disappointing because of the extent of the lesions in patients unable to develop a sufficient immune response directed against HPV.

Takeshi Iwasaki, Masahiro Tominaga, Takumi Fukumoto, Nobuya Kusunoki, Takemi Sugimoto, Masahiro Kido, Satoshi Ogata, Atsushi Takebe, Motofumi Tanaka, Yonson Ku – 28 November 2006 – Relative adrenal insufficiency is now a well‐known clinical condition that occurs in critically ill patients particularly with septic complication. However, this pathology has long been unrecognized until recently in liver transplantation patients, for whom postoperative immunosuppressive therapies almost always comprise corticosteroids.

Yalan Wang, Ning Zheng, Zhengbin Lu, Wenhan Wu, Lianfu Wang, Atsunori Nakao, Michael T. Lotze, Carrie E. Langer, John J. Fung, Shiguang Qian, Lina Lu – 28 November 2006 – Liver transplant tolerance in pigs, rats, and mice has been disclosed for decades, but the underlying mechanisms are not completely understood. Accumulating data indicate that residing dendritic cells (DC) are important in determining direction of immune responses in the liver. However, our knowledge remains very limited due to the difficulties in obtaining sufficient liver DC.