Tessa M. van Ginhoven, James R. Mitchell, Marielle Verweij, Jan H. J. Hoeijmakers, Jan N. M. Ijzermans, Ron W. F. de Bruin – 29 September 2009 – Preoperative fasting was introduced in the 19th century to reduce the risk of aspiration pneumonia while patients were under general anesthesia. During the last decades, the value of preoperative fasting has been questioned, and more liberal guidelines have been proposed, such as the use of preoperative carbohydrate‐rich drinks.

Felix C. Popp, Philipp Renner, Elke Eggenhofer, Przemyslaw Slowik, Edward K. Geissler, Pompiliu Piso, Hans J. Schlitt, Marc H. Dahlke – 29 September 2009 – Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidate cells for immunomodulation therapy that are currently being tested in the preclinical and clinical setting. MSCs suppress the immune response in a variety of in vitro and disease models and may thus be of benefit for patients suffering from autoimmune disorders or transplant rejection.

Mara Greenberg, Tami J. Daugherty, Arvand Elihu, Ravi Sharaf, Waldo Concepcion, Maurice Druzin, Carlos O. Esquivel – 29 September 2009 – Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for acute liver failure (ALF) during pregnancy is an uncommon occurrence with variable outcomes. In pregnancy‐related liver failure, prompt diagnosis and immediate delivery are essential for a reversal of the underlying process and for maternal and fetal survival. In rare cases, the reason for ALF during pregnancy is either unknown or irreversible, and thus OLT may be necessary.

Thomas A. Kerr, Nicholas O. Davidson – 29 September 2009 – Posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression is increasingly recognized as a model for inherited and acquired disease. Recent work has expanded understanding of the range of mechanisms that regulate several of these distinct steps, including messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing, trafficking, and/or stability. Each of these pathways is implicated in disease pathogenesis, and each represents important avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Geng Chen, Huaizhi Wang, Liping Chen, Shizhong Yang, Shuguang Wang, Ping Bie, Zhanyu Yang, Jiahong Dong – 29 September 2009

Francesco D'Amico, Myron Schwartz, Alessandro Vitale, Parissa Tabrizian, Sasan Roayaie, Swan Thung, Maria Guido, Juan del Rio Martin, Thomas Schiano, Umberto Cillo – 29 September 2009 – The up‐to‐seven (Up‐to‐7) criteria [with 7 being the sum of the size and number of tumors for any given hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)] have been recently proposed to identify potential candidates for liver transplantation (LT) among patients exceeding the Milan criteria.

Randeep Kashyap, Charlotte Ryan, Rajeev Sharma, Manoj K. Maloo, Saman Safadjou, Maureen Graham, David Tretheway, Ashokkumar Jain, Mark Orloff – 29 September 2009 – Traditionally, patients who die with a malignancy have been excluded from donation. However, it has become a common practice to accept organs from donors that have low‐grade tumors or tumors with low metastatic potential. The aim of this study was to analyze our experience with the use of liver grafts from donors with central nervous system (CNS) tumors.

Markus Selzner, Arash Kashfi, Nazia Selzner, Stuart McCluskey, Paul D. Greig, Mark S. Cattral, Gary A. Levy, Les Lilly, Eberhard L. Renner, George Therapondos, Lesley E. Adcock, David R. Grant, Ian D. McGilvray – 29 September 2009 – We studied the role of donor and recipient age in transplantation/ischemia‐reperfusion injury (TIRI) and short‐ and long‐term graft and patient survival. Eight hundred twenty‐two patients underwent deceased donor liver transplantation, with 197 donors being ≥60 years old.

Frédéric Schnell, Erwan Donal, Richard Lorho, Sylvain Lavoué, Arnaud Gacouin, Philippe Compagnon, Karim Boudjema, Philippe Mabo, Yves Le Tulzo, Christophe Camus – 29 September 2009 – Left‐sided heart failure (LHF) after liver transplantation (LT) is rare and poorly understood. We performed a case‐control study. We reviewed the data of all patients with LHF after LT at our center from November 2000 to July 2007. Each case was matched to 1 LT control without LHF for age, sex, date of transplantation, and liver disease. Twenty of 599 patients developed LHF (3.3%).

Ashish Singhal, Neerav Goyal, Vivek Vij Subash Gupta – 29 September 2009