Mei Huang, Rui Sun, Haiming Wei, Zhigang Tian – 13 July 2012 – NKG2D activation plays an important role in initiating and maintaining liver inflammation, and blockade of NKG2D recognition becomes a promising approach to alleviate liver inflammation. Treatment by silencing NKG2D ligands on hepatocytes, but not NKG2D on circulating immune cells, is more liver‐specific, and simultaneous knockdown of multiple NKG2D ligands on hepatocytes will be more efficient in liver disease intervention.

Andrew Aronsohn, Donald Jensen – 13 July 2012

Ching‐Lung Lai, Man‐Fung Yuen – 13 July 2012 – Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is the major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Primary prevention of hepatitis B infection by vaccination is effective in reducing the incidence of HCC. In persons with CHB infection, the two accepted treatment modalities are interferon alpha (IFN‐α) given subcutaneously for a limited period and nucleoside/nucleotide analogs given orally on a long‐term basis. These treatments are effective in suppressing viral activity and improving disease markers in short‐term studies.

Nozomu Sakai, Heather L. Van Sweringen, R. Cutler Quillin, Rebecca Schuster, John Blanchard, Justin M. Burns, Amit D. Tevar, Michael J. Edwards, Alex B. Lentsch – 10 July 2012 – Interleukin (IL)‐33 is a recently identified member of the IL‐1 family that binds to the receptor, ST2L. In the current study, we sought to determine whether IL‐33 is an important regulator in the hepatic response to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 90 minutes of partial hepatic ischemia, followed by up to 8 hours of reperfusion.

Tram T. Tran, Luis H. Ocampo – 6 July 2012

Kasey C. Vickers, Bassem M. Shoucri, Michael G. Levin, Han Wu, Daniel S. Pearson, David Osei‐Hwedieh, Francis S. Collins, Alan T. Remaley, Praveen Sethupathy – 6 July 2012 – Cellular and plasma lipid levels are tightly controlled by complex gene regulatory mechanisms. Elevated plasma lipid content, or hyperlipidemia, is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Chun‐Ming Tsao, Ming‐De Yan, Yu‐Lueng Shih, Pei‐Ning Yu, Chih‐Chi Kuo, Wen‐Chi Lin, Hsin‐Jung Li, Ya‐Wen Lin – 5 July 2012 – Oncogenic activation of the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway is common in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our recent studies have demonstrated that SRY (sex determining region Y)‐box 1 (SOX1) and secreted frizzled‐related proteins are concomitantly promoter‐hypermethylated, and this might lead to abnormal activation of the Wnt signaling pathway in HCC. SOX1 encodes a transcription factor involved in the regulation of embryonic development and cell fate determination.

Håkon Haugaa, Ebbe Billmann Thorgersen, Anne Pharo, Kirsten M. Boberg, Aksel Foss, Pål Dag Line, Truls Sanengen, Runar Almaas, Guro Grindheim, Lars Wælgaard, Soeren Erik Pischke, Tom Eirik Mollnes, Tor Inge Tønnessen – 5 July 2012 – Rejection and ischemia are serious complications after liver transplantation. Early detection is mandatory, but specific markers are largely missing, particularly for rejection.

Young Joo Suh, Myeong‐Jin Kim, Jin‐Young Choi, Mi‐Suk Park, Ki Whang Kim – 5 July 2012 – The aim of this study was to investigate whether diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) could be useful in predicting the microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sixty‐seven surgically proven HCCs from 65 patients (54 men and 11 women with an age range of 35‐75 years and a mean age of 56.0 years) were retrospectively analyzed.

Scott L. Nyberg – 5 July 2012 – Key Points