Rajagopal N. Aravalli, Clifford J. Steer, Erik N. K. Cressman – 24 November 2008 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) typically has poor prognosis, because it is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Heterogeneous phenotypic and genetic traits of affected individuals and a wide range of risk factors have classified it a complex disease. HCC is not amenable to standard chemotherapy and is resistant to radiotherapy. In most cases, surgical resection and liver transplantation remain the only curative treatment options. Therefore, development of novel, effective therapies is of prime importance.

Pietro Invernizzi, Carlo Selmi, Francesca Poli, Sara Frison, Annarosa Floreani, Domenico Alvaro, Piero Almasio, Floriano Rosina, Marco Marzioni, Luca Fabris, Luigi Muratori, Lihong Qi, Michael F. Seldin, M. Eric Gershwin, Mauro Podda, Italian PBC Genetic Study Group – 24 November 2008 – Genetic factors are critical in determining susceptibility to primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), but there has not been a clear association with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes.

Pedro Zapater, Rubén Francés, José M. González‐Navajas, Maria A. de la Hoz, Rocío Moreu, Sonia Pascual, David Monfort, Silvia Montoliu, Carmen Vila, Amparo Escudero, Xavier Torras, Isabel Cirera, Lucía Llanos, Carlos Guarner‐Argente, José M. Palazón, Fernando Carnicer, Pablo Bellot, Carlos Guarner, Ramón Planas, Ricard Solá, Miguel A. Serra, Carlos Muñoz, Miguel Pérez‐Mateo, José Such – 24 November 2008 – We tested the hypothesis that the presence of bacterial DNA (bactDNA) in ascitic fluid and serum is associated with decreased survival in patients with cirrhosis.

Thomas Kuntzen, Joerg Timm, Andrew Berical, Niall Lennon, Aaron M. Berlin, Sarah K. Young, Bongshin Lee, David Heckerman, Jonathan Carlson, Laura L. Reyor, Marianna Kleyman, Cory M. McMahon, Christopher Birch, Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, Timothy Ledlie, Michael Koehrsen, Chinnappa Kodira, Andrew D. Roberts, Georg M. Lauer, Hugo R. Rosen, Florian Bihl, Andreas Cerny, Ulrich Spengler, Zhimin Liu, Arthur Y. Kim, Yanming Xing, Arne Schneidewind, Margaret A. Madey, Jaquelyn F. Fleckenstein, Vicki M. Park, James E. Galagan, Chad Nusbaum, Bruce D. Walker, Gerond V. Lake‐Bakaar, Eric S.

Anna Ludovica Fracanzani, Luca Valenti, Silvia Fargion – 24 November 2008

Shailendra Kapoor – 24 November 2008

Kjetil Elvevold, Jaione Simon‐Santamaria, Hege Hasvold, Peter McCourt, Bård Smedsrød, Karen Kristine Sørensen – 24 November 2008 – Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) are largely responsible for the removal of circulating lysosomal enzymes (LE) via mannose receptor (MR)‐mediated endocytosis. We hypothesized that LSECs rely on this uptake to maintain their extraordinarily high degradation capacity for other endocytosed material.

Kunj K. Desai, George S. Dikdan, Asif Shareef, Baburao Koneru – 29 October 2008 – Utilization of ischemic preconditioning to ameliorate ischemia/reperfusion injury has been extensively studied in various organs and species for the past two decades. While hepatic ischemic preconditioning in animals has been largely beneficial, translational efforts in the two clinical contexts—liver resection and decreased donor liver transplantation—have yielded mixed results.

Shunji Narumi, Kenichi Hakamda, Yoshikazu Toyoki, Keinosuke Ishido, Masaki Nara, Syuichi Yoshihara, Mutsuo Sasaki – 29 October 2008 – The self‐expandable metallic stent (SEMS) has become a common device for palliative treatment of malignant biliary obstructions or benign strictures. Despite the ease of placement of SEMSs, their removal has been reported to be very difficult. Here, we report a case with primary sclerosing cholangitis who developed massive hemorrhage after intraoperative removal of a SEMS.

Laura Rinaldi, Marco Marietta, Mariano Alejandro Mignini, Lara Donno, Stefano Busani, Mauro Codeluppi, Michele Masetti, Massimo Girardis – 29 October 2008 – Recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) has been approved for use in patients with severe sepsis at high risk of death. Because of the high risk of bleeding, liver transplantation (LT) patients have been excluded from the randomized control trials that evaluated efficacy and safety of rhAPC and, thus, few data are available on the use of this drug in LT patients with severe sepsis.