Yves Benhamou, Herve Fleury, Pascale Trimoulet, Isabelle Pellegrin, Renaud Urbinelli, Christine Katlama, Willy Rozenbaum, Gwenael Le Teuff, Aldo Trylesinski, Christophe Piketty – 22 February 2006 – Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) has shown in vitro activity against both HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV). We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of TDF (300 mg/d), administered as a part of anti‐retroviral therapy, in a large cohort of HIV/HBV‐coinfected patients.

Christoph Neumann‐Haefelin, Susan McKiernan, Scott Ward, Sergei Viazov, Hans Christian Spangenberg, Thomas Killinger, Thomas F. Baumert, Natalja Nazarova, Isabelle Sheridan, Oliver Pybus, Fritz von Weizsäcker, Michael Roggendorf, Dermot Kelleher, Paul Klenerman, Hubert E. Blum, Robert Thimme – 22 February 2006 – Virus‐specific CD8+ T cell responses play an important role in the natural course of infection; however, the impact of certain CD8+ T cell responses in determining clinical outcome has not been fully defined.

Patrick T.F. Kennedy, Simonetta Urbani, Rebecca A. Moses, Barbara Amadei, Paola Fisicaro, Jilly Lloyd, Mala K. Maini, Geoffrey Dusheiko, Carlo Ferrari, Antonio Bertoletti – 22 February 2006 – Detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐specific T cell response after exposure to hepatitis C in anti‐HCV–positive or anti‐HCV–negative patients has been associated with an ability to successfully control the infection. However, cross‐reactivity between common human pathogens and HCV sequences has been demonstrated.

Albert J. Czaja, Herschel A. Carpenter – 22 February 2006 – Autoimmune hepatitis is classically a disease of young women. Our aims were to determine its occurrence, clinical phenotype, and outcome in elderly patients and contrast findings to young adults. Two‐hundred‐and‐five white North American adults with definite type 1 autoimmune hepatitis were grouped according to age at presentation and the groups compared. Forty‐seven patients (23%) were aged ≥60 years (median age, 68 years), and 31 patients (15%) were aged ≤30 years (median age, 25 years).

Burton Combes – 22 February 2006

Shan‐Shan Zhan, Joy X. Jiang, Jian Wu, Charles Halsted, Scott L. Friedman, Mark A. Zern, Natalie J. Torok – 22 February 2006 – Hepatic stellate cell activation is a main feature of liver fibrogenesis. We have previously shown that phagocytosis of apoptotic bodies by stellate cells induces procollagen α1 (I) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β) expression in vitro.

Aftab Ala, Carmen M. Stanca, Moueen Bu‐Ghanim, Imad Ahmado, Andrea D. Branch, Thomas D. Schiano, Joseph A. Odin, Nancy Bach – 22 February 2006 – Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are uncommon liver diseases of unknown etiology. Reported clustering of PBC cases may be due to environmental factors. Individuals with PBC have a high prevalence of thyroid disease and thyroid disease is reportedly more prevalent near Superfund toxic waste sites (SFS).

Paige M. Porrett, Heather Peterman, Mark Rosen, Seema Sonnad, Michael Soulen, James F. Markmann, Abraham Shaked, Emma Furth, K. Rajender Reddy, Kim Olthoff – 15 February 2006 – The potential for disease progression in patients awaiting liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has encouraged many centers to employ pre‐transplant radiofrequency ablation or chemoembolization in an attempt to control tumor burden while patients are on the wait list.

Christoph Jochum, Mechthild Beste, Volker Penndorf, Marjan Sharifi Farahani, Giuliano Testa, Silvio Nadalin, Massimo Malago, Christoph E. Broelsch, Guido Gerken – 15 February 2006 – The unique ability of the liver to regenerate quickly after resection makes living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) possible. This technique uses the unique ability of the liver to regenerate to full size after partial resection. However, the quality and course of this regeneration process in humans are still widely unexplored.

Ivo W. Graziadei, Hubert Schwaighofer, Robert Koch, Karin Nachbaur, Alfred Koenigsrainer, Raimund Margreiter, Wolfgang Vogel – 15 February 2006 – Biliary strictures are one of the most common complications following liver transplantation (LT), with an incidence of 5.8‐34%. Endoscopic techniques have been successfully used to treat biliary complications; however, the long‐term efficacy and safety of this treatment option has not yet been fully elucidated.