David N. Assis, Lin Leng, Xin Du, Clarence K. Zhang, Gerrit Grieb, Melanie Merk, Alvaro Baeza Garcia, Catherine McCrann, Julius Chapiro, Andreas Meinhardt, Yuka Mizue, David J. Nikolic‐Paterson, Jürgen Bernhagen, Marshall M. Kaplan, Hongyu Zhao, James L. Boyer, Richard Bucala – 2 August 2013 – The role of the cytokine, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), and its receptor, CD74, was assessed in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).

Lionel Lim, Asha Balakrishnan, Noelle Huskey, Kirk D. Jones, Mona Jodari, Raymond Ng, Guisheng Song, Jesse Riordan, Brittany Anderton, Siu‐Tim Cheung, Holger Willenbring, Adam Dupuy, Xin Chen, David Brown, Aaron N. Chang, Andrei Goga – 2 August 2013 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is associated with poor survival for patients and few effective treatment options, raising the need for novel therapeutic strategies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in tumor development and show deregulated patterns of expression in HCC.

Santseharay Ramirez, Yi‐Ping Li, Sanne B. Jensen, Jannie Pedersen, Judith M. Gottwein, Jens Bukh – 2 August 2013 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a genetically diverse virus with multiple genotypes exhibiting remarkable differences, particularly in drug susceptibility. Drug and vaccine development will benefit from high‐titer HCV cultures mimicking the complete viral life cycle, but such systems only exist for genotypes 1a and 2a. We developed efficient culture systems for the epidemiologically important genotype 2b.

Jason Grebely, Kimberly Page, Rachel Sacks‐Davis, Maarten Schim Loeff, Thomas M. Rice, Julie Bruneau, Meghan D. Morris, Behzad Hajarizadeh, Janaki Amin, Andrea L. Cox, Arthur Y. Kim, Barbara H. McGovern, Janke Schinkel, Jacob George, Naglaa H. Shoukry, Georg M. Lauer, Lisa Maher, Andrew R. Lloyd, Margaret Hellard, Gregory J. Dore, Maria Prins, the InC3 Study Group – 2 August 2013 – Although 20%‐40% of persons with acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection demonstrate spontaneous clearance, the time course and factors associated with clearance remain poorly understood.

Szun S. Tay, Bo Lu, Fred Sierro, Volker Benseler, Claire M. McGuffog, G. Alex Bishop, Peter J. Cowan, Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Karen M. Dwyer, David G. Bowen, Patrick Bertolino – 2 August 2013 – Donor passenger leukocytes (PLs) from transplanted livers migrate to recipient lymphoid tissues, where they are thought to induce the deletion of donor‐specific T cells and tolerance.

Alberto Q. Farias, Odilson M. Silvestre, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, Luis F.B. Seguro, Daniel F. Mazo, Fernando Bacal, José L. Andrade, Luciana L. Gonçalves, Célia Strunz, Danusa S. Ramos, Demerson Polli, Vincenzo Pugliese, Ana C.T. Rodrigues, Meive S. Furtado, Flair J. Carrilho, Luiz A.C. D'Albuquerque – 2 August 2013 – Heart failure (HF) is, after cirrhosis, the second‐most common cause of ascites. Serum B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) plays an important role in the diagnosis of HF. Therefore, we hypothesized that BNP would be useful in the differential diagnosis of ascites.

Sabrina A. Stratton, Michelle Craig Barton – 1 August 2013

Chloé Latour, Léon Kautz, Céline Besson‐Fournier, Marie‐Laure Island, François Canonne‐Hergaux, Olivier Loréal, Tomas Ganz, Hélène Coppin, Marie‐Paule Roth – 1 August 2013 – Gender‐related disparities in the regulation of iron metabolism may contribute to the differences exhibited by men and women in the progression of chronic liver diseases associated with reduced hepcidin expression, e.g., chronic hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease, or hereditary hemochromatosis. However, their mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Kris P. Croome, William Wall, Natasha Chandok, Gavin Beck, Paul Marotta, Roberto Hernandez‐Alejandro – 1 August 2013 – The impact of ischemia/reperfusion injury in the setting of transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been thoroughly investigated. The present study examined data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients for all recipients of deceased donor liver transplants performed between January 1, 1995 and October 31, 2011.

Sheng‐Hui Lan, Shan‐Ying Wu, Roberto Zuchini, Xi‐Zhang Lin, Ih‐Jen Su, Ting‐Fen Tsai, Yen‐Ju Lin, Cheng‐Tao Wu, Hsiao‐Sheng Liu – 1 August 2013 – In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), dysregulated expression of microRNA‐224 (miR‐224) and impaired autophagy have been reported separately. However, the relationship between them has not been explored. In this study we determined that autophagy is down‐regulated and inversely correlated with miR‐224 expression in hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐associated HCC patient specimens. These results were confirmed in liver tumors of HBV X gene transgenic mice.