Wataru Ando, Hiroaki Yokomori, Fumihiko Kaneko, Mana Kaneko, Koji Igarashi, Hidekazu Suzuki – 23 August 2018 – The purpose of this study was to determine whether serum autotaxin concentrations reflect liver stiffness in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treated with direct‐acting antiviral agents. Adult patients with chronic HCV were enrolled from January 2016 to August 2017. Autotaxin concentrations in these patients were compared with those of a control group consisting of healthy individuals. Liver stiffness was determined by transient elastography.

Bartlomiej Zapotoczny, Karolina Szafranska, Edyta Kus, Filip Braet, Eddie Wisse, Stefan Chlopicki, Marek Szymonski – 23 August 2018 – The fenestrae of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) allow passive transport of solutes, macromolecules, and particulate material between the sinusoidal lumen and the liver parenchymal cells. Until recently, fenestrae and fenestrae‐associated structures were mainly investigated using electron microscopy on chemically fixed LSECs. Hence, the knowledge about their dynamic properties has remained to date largely elusive.

Gaetan Ligat, Catherine Schuster, Thomas F. Baumert – 23 August 2018

Andressa Franca, Antonio Carlos Melo Lima Filho, Mateus T. Guerra, Jittima Weerachayaphorn, Marcone Loiola dos Santos, Basile Njei, Marie Robert, Cristiano Xavier Lima, Paula Vieira Teixeira Vidigal, Jesus M. Banales, Meenakshisundaram Ananthanarayanan, M. Fatima Leite, Michael H. Nathanson – 23 August 2018 – Clinical conditions that result in endotoxemia, such as sepsis and alcoholic hepatitis (AH), often are accompanied by cholestasis.

Saroja Bangaru, Mark R. Pedersen, Malcolm P. MacConmara, Amit G. Singal, Arjmand R. Mufti – 23 August 2018 – Liver transplantation (LT) has a demonstrated survival benefit in select patients with severe acute alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) who do not respond to steroids, but prior studies suggest low adoption among US LT centers. Our study explored current perceptions and practice patterns of LT for SAH in the United States. We administered a Web‐based survey to medical directors of US LT centers between May and October of 2017 to characterize practice patterns and perceptions of LT for SAH.

Laura Palomo, Justyna Emilia Mleczko, Mikel Azkargorta, Javier Conde‐Vancells, Esperanza González, Felix Elortza, Félix Royo, Juan M. Falcon‐Perez – 23 August 2018 – Drug‐induced liver injury (DILI) is a serious worldwide health problem that accounts for more than 50% of acute liver failure. There is a great interest in clinical diagnosis and pharmaceutical industry to elucidate underlying molecular mechanisms and find noninvasive biomarkers for this pathology. Cell‐secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) have provided a new biological source to identify low disease invasive markers.

Andrew S. Allegretti, Xavier Vela Parada, Guillermo A. Ortiz, Joshua Long, Scott Krinsky, Sophia Zhao, Bryan C. Fuchs, Mozhdeh Sojoodi, Dongsheng Zhang, S. Ananth Karumanchi, Sahir Kalim, Sagar U. Nigwekar, Ravi I. Thadhani, Samir M. Parikh, Raymond T. Chung – 23 August 2018 – Acute kidney injury in decompensated cirrhosis has limited therapeutic options, and novel mechanistic targets are urgently needed. Angiopoietin‐2 is a context‐specific antagonist of Tie2, a receptor that signals vascular quiescence.

Ziru Li, Ruili Yu, Wenzhen Yin, Yan Qin, Liangxiao Ma, Michael Mulholland, Weizhen Zhang – 23 August 2018 – Gastric mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling is inversely associated with the expression and secretion of ghrelin, a 28‐aa peptide hormone produced by gastric X/A‐like cells. Ghrelin contributes to obesity and hepatic steatosis. We sought to control global lipid metabolism via the manipulation of gastric mTOR signaling in X/A‐like cells. We established a ghrl‐cre transgene in which the Cre enzyme is expressed in X/A‐like cells under the control of the ghrelin‐promoter.

Ana C. Maretti‐Mira, Xiangdong Wang, Lei Wang, Laurie D. DeLeve – 23 August 2018 – Normal liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) promote quiescence of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). Prior to fibrosis, LSECs undergo capillarization, which is permissive for HSC activation, the proximate event in hepatic fibrosis. The aims of this study were to elucidate the nature of and mechanisms leading to capillarization and to determine how LSECs promote HSC quiescence and why “capillarized LSECs” lose control of HSC activation.

Marc G. Ghany, Timothy M. Block – 22 August 2018