Charlotte K.Y. Ng, Salvatore Piscuoglio, Luigi M. Terracciano – 9 June 2017

Ryan J. Schulze, Kristina Drižytė, Carol A. Casey, Mark A. McNiven – 9 June 2017 – The liver is a central fat‐storage organ, making it especially susceptible to steatosis as well as subsequent inflammation and cirrhosis. The mechanisms by which the liver mobilizes stored lipid for energy production, however, remain incompletely defined. The catabolic process of autophagy, a well‐known process of bulk cytoplasmic recycling and cellular self‐regeneration, is a central regulator of lipid metabolism in the liver.

8 June 2017

8 June 2017

Sapana Verma, Yuka Tanaka, Seiichi Shimizu, Naoki Tanimine, Hideki Ohdan – 8 June 2017 – Previous studies have found that preferential accumulation of regulatory T (Treg) cells in liver allografts during acute cellular rejection (ACR) is associated with less severe rejection, suggesting a role of Treg cells in preventing excessive progress of ACR. We investigated the impact of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) gene, a master regulator gene of Treg cells, on ACR severity in liver transplant (LT) recipients.

Manuel Mendizabal, Marcelo O. Silva – 7 June 2017 – The development of consortia has been useful for exploring challenging scenarios and uncharted territories in liver disease treatments. Several consortia already developed in the United States and Europe have become key factors in patient care decision‐making processes and medical education, and they have also impacted policy makers' decisions. In Latin America, the situation is different.

Toshihiro Kitajima, Seisuke Sakamoto, Kengo Sasaki, Hajime Uchida, Soichi Narumoto, Akinari Fukuda, Satoshi Teramukai, Shinji Uemoto, Mureo Kasahara – 7 June 2017 – After decades of dramatic surgical innovations in pediatric living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), LDLT for biliary atresia (BA) still poses various challenges. This study reviewed our experience with LDLT for children with post‐Kasai BA and evaluated outcomes and prognostic factors. From 2005 to 2016, 168 post‐Kasai BA LDLT patients were enrolled and divided into 3 groups by age.

Avegail Flores, Sumeet K. Asrani – 7 June 2017 – In 2006, derivation of the donor risk index (DRI) highlighted the importance of donor factors for successful liver transplantation. Over the last decade, the DRI has served as a useful metric of donor quality and has enhanced our understanding of donor factors and their impact upon recipients with hepatitis C virus, those with low Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, and individuals undergoing retransplantation.

Xiao Zhi, Fei Xue, Wei Chen, Chao Liang, Hao Liu, Tao Ma, Xuefeng Xia, Liqiang Hu, Xueli Bai, Tingbo Liang – 7 June 2017 – Despite its rarity (1%‐2%), acute graft‐versus‐host disease after liver transplantation (LT‐aGVHD) has a high mortality rate (85%). A gradual decrease in regulatory T cells (Tregs) correlates with disease progression in a rat LT‐GVHD model, and treatments which increase Tregs exert therapeutic effects on LT‐aGVHD. In this study, LT‐aGVHD model rats were treated with rapamycin (RAPA), OSI‐027, or an equal quantity of vehicle.

Carlos Moctezuma‐Velazquez, Sylvia Kalainy, Juan G. Abraldes – 7 June 2017 – Nonselective beta‐blockers (NSBBs) have been the backbone for the treatment of portal hypertension in cirrhosis for the last 3 decades. A publication in 2010 of a prospective observational study suggested that NSBBs could increase mortality in patients with refractory ascites. This opened a controversy about the safety and efficacy of NSBBs in patients with advanced liver disease and led to the publication of a large corpus of observational data assessing the safety of NSBBs in patients with advanced cirrhosis.