<div><p><b>Background: </b>ECM1 depletion results in excessive latent TGF-β1 activation and lethal liver fibrosis in mice. In patients suffering from chronic liver diseases, ECM1 expression gradually decreases with increasing severity of fibrosis. We investigated the underlying mechanisms of how ECM1 contributes to tissue homeostasis in healthy livers and what changes occur during CLD progression.</p>

<div><p><b>Background:</p> </b><div><p>

<div><p><b>Background: </b>We have previously reported that vitamin K dosing augments the anticancer effects of sorafenib by suppressing levels of des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), a known tumor growth and angiogenesis factor produced in HCC under sorafenib-induced ischemia. Herein, we aimed to establish whether vitamin K dosing could afford a similar anticancer effect when combined with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), known to induce ischemic tumor necrosis in HCC.</p>

<div><p><b>Background: </b>While obesity is a risk factor for NAFLD, patients across the BMI spectrum are affected by the disease, creating a need for reliable non-invasive tests (NITs) with performances that are not affected by BMI. While most of standard NITs are designed to detect advanced fibrosis, NIS2+™, an optimization of the blood-based NIS4® technology, is specifically designed to detect at-risk NASH (<span>NAS≥4; F≥2</span>).

<div><p><b>Background:</p> </b><p>Non-invasive diagnostic tools for clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) have been developed in the ANTICIPATE study/subsequent work (liver stiffness measurement (LSM) and platelet count (PLT) ± BMI) and endorsed by the Baveno VII consensus. A dedicated 100Hz probe for spleen stiffness measurement (SSM) substantially increased its clinical applicability, but limited data exists on the diagnostic performance of SSM (100Hz) for CSPH as well as its ability to improve the ANTICIPATE±NASH models.</p>

<div><p><strong><b>Background:</strong> </b></p>
<div><p><span lang="EN-US">Antiviral prophylaxis with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) during pregnancy is the current standard of care to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection in highly viremic mothers. We investigated the maternal and fetal outcomes in a large Chinese cohort of TDF-treated CHB pregnant subjects.</span></p></div>
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<div><p><strong>Background</strong>: The ongoing overdose crisis has led to an increase in transplantation of organs from HCV-infected donors (D+) to uninfected recipients (R-). We previously showed that an ultra-short course (1 day pre and 7 days post) of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P) combined with ezetimibe (E) prevented chronic infection in non-liver solid organ recipients.

<div><p><b>Background: </b>Non-selective-beta-blockers (NSBB) are main stay of therapy in portal hypertension management. Apart from direct portal pressure reduction, NSBB’s modulate inflammatory cascade, which could be beneficial in patients with acute decompensation (AD). We therefore aimed to evaluate effect of NSBB on 28-day mortality and markers of systemic inflammation in a propensity score matched (PSM) cohort of AD patients requiring intensive care unit(ICU) admission.</p>

<div><p><b>Background: </b>The liver has a remarkable regenerative capacity. Nevertheless, under chronic liver-damaging conditions, this capacity becomes exhausted, allowing the accumulation of fibrotic tissue and leading to end-stage liver disease. Enhancing the endogenous regenerative capacity by targeting regeneration breaks is a novel therapeutic approach. We set up an in vivo functional genetic screen to identify such regeneration breaks. Integrin Alpha FG-GAP Repeat Containing 1 (ITFG1) was one of the top hits.

<div><p><b>Background:<span> </b>Pollution from plastics is an increasing health threat. Microplastics are small plastic pieces, which are formed by direct synthesis for industrial or consumer applications as well as by environmental plastic degradation. As plastic degradation is increased by UV light and “weathering”, global warming has increased environmental microplastics.