Ziv Ben‐Ari – 20 October 2006

Kanji Wakabayashi, Zhe‐Xiong Lian, Yuki Moritoki, Ruth Y. Lan, Koichi Tsuneyama, Ya‐Hui Chuang, Guo‐Xiang Yang, William Ridgway, Yoshiyuki Ueno, Aftab A. Ansari, Ross L. Coppel, Ian R. Mackay, M. Eric Gershwin – 20 October 2006 – Recently, we identified a child born with a genetic deficiency of IL‐2 receptor α (IL‐2Rα, CD25) expression who had several clinical manifestations of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).

Norah J. Shire, Paul S. Horn, Susan D. Rouster, Sandra Stanford, M. Elaine Eyster, Kenneth E. Sherman, Multicenter Hemophilia Cohort HCV Study Group – 20 October 2006 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment response rates remain low in HCV/HIV‐1‐coinfected individuals compared with those with HCV alone. Persons with inherited coagulation disorders have high rates of HCV and HIV‐1 infection, but HCV treatment trials in this patient population are scarce.

Elizabeth P. Newberry, Yan Xie, Susan M. Kennedy, Jianyang Luo, Nicholas O. Davidson – 20 October 2006 – Liver fatty acid–binding protein (L‐Fabp) regulates murine hepatic fatty acid trafficking in response to fasting. In this study, we show that L‐Fabp−/− mice fed a high‐fat Western diet for up to 18 weeks are less obese and accumulate less hepatic triglyceride than C57BL/6J controls. Paradoxically, both control and L‐Fabp−/− mice manifested comparable glucose intolerance and insulin resistance when fed a Western diet.

Neil Kaplowitz – 20 October 2006

Rupert Abdalian, E. Jenny Heathcote – 20 October 2006 – Secondary sclerosing cholangitis (SSC) is a disease that is morphologically similar to primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) but that originates from a known pathological process. Its clinical and cholangiographic features may mimic PSC, yet its natural history may be more favorable if recognition is prompt and appropriate therapy is introduced.

Henrik Toft Sørensen, Timothy L. Lash, Kenneth J. Rothman – 20 October 2006 – Observational analogs of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are well accepted in the study of disease risk factors, diagnosis, and prognosis. There is controversy about observational studies when the focus is on the intended benefit due to lack of blinding and poor control for unmeasured confounding. Well‐designed randomized clinical trials are costly both in time and money. Therefore, existing databases are used increasingly and are often the only feasible source with which to examine delayed health effects.

Javier Fernández, Angels Escorsell, Michel Zabalza, Vanessa Felipe, Miguel Navasa, Antoni Mas, Antonio M. Lacy, Pere Ginès, Vicente Arroyo – 20 October 2006 – Relative adrenal insufficiency is frequent in patients with severe sepsis and is associated with hemodynamic instability, renal failure, and increased mortality. This study prospectively evaluated the effects of steroids on shock resolution and hospital survival in a series of 25 consecutive patients with cirrhosis and septic shock (group 1).

Charles S. Landis, Kosho Yamanouchi, Hongchao Zhou, Sankar Mohan, Namita Roy‐Chowdhury, David A. Shafritz, Alan Koretsky, Jayanta Roy‐Chowdhury, Hoby P. Hetherington, Chandan Guha – 20 October 2006 – Hepatocyte transplantation (HT) is being explored as a substitute for liver transplantation for the treatment of liver diseases. For the clinical application of HT, a preparative regimen that allows preferential proliferation of transplanted cells in the host liver and a noninvasive method to monitor donor cell engraftment, proliferation, and immune rejection would be useful.

Cheng‐Hsu Chen, Liang‐Mou Kuo, Yigang Chang, Wenhan Wu, Christina Goldbach, Mark A. Ross, Donna B. Stolz, Liepin Chen, John J. Fung, Lin Lu, Shiguang Qian – 20 October 2006 – Accumulating data suggest that hepatic tolerance, initially demonstrated by spontaneous acceptance of liver allografts in many species, results from an immune regulatory activity occurring in the liver. However, the responsible cellular and molecular components have not been completely understood. We have recently described profound T cell inhibitory activity of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in vitro.