David A. Rudnick, Olga Shikapwashya, Keith Blomenkamp, Jeffrey H. Teckman – 27 September 2006 – Homozygous (PIZZ) alpha‐1‐antitrypsin (α1‐AT) deficiency is associated with the development of liver damage in children as well as chronic liver injury and hepatocellular carcinoma in adults. The α1‐AT mutant Z gene encodes a mutant protein that accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum of hepatocytes rather than being secreted appropriately into serum. Liver injury is caused by the accumulation of α1‐AT mutant Z protein in hepatocytes, which triggers downstream intracellular injury pathways.

Stephen H. Caldwell, Maureane Hoffman, Ton Lisman, B. Gail Macik, Patrick G. Northup, K. Rajender Reddy, Armando Tripodi, Arun J. Sanyal, Coagulation in Liver Disease Group – 27 September 2006 – Normal coagulation has classically been conceptualized as a Y‐shaped pathway, with distinct “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” components initiated by factor XII or factor VIIa/tissue factor, respectively, and converging in a “common” pathway at the level of the FXa/FVa (prothrombinase) complex.

Michael Sørensen, Susanne Keiding – 27 September 2006

Masaya Sugiyama, Yasuhito Tanaka, Takanobu Kato, Etsuro Orito, Kiyoaki Ito, Subrat K. Acharya, Robert G. Gish, Anna Kramvis, Takashi Shimada, Namiki Izumi, Masahiko Kaito, Yuzo Miyakawa, Masashi Mizokami – 27 September 2006 – Various genotypes of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) induce liver disease of distinct severity, but the underlying virological differences are not well defined. Huh7 cells were transfected with plasmids carrying 1.24‐fold the HBV genome of different genotypes/subgenotypes (2 strains each for Aa/A1, Ae/A2, Ba/B2 and D; 3 each for Bj/B1 and C).

Natini Jinawath, Yaovalux Chamgramol, Yoichi Furukawa, Kazutaka Obama, Tatsuhiko Tsunoda, Banchob Sripa, Chawalit Pairojkul, Yusuke Nakamura – 27 September 2006 – Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is the second most common primary cancer in the liver, and its incidence is highest in the northeastern part of Thailand. ICCs in this region are known to be associated with infection with liver flukes, particularly Opisthorchis viverrini (OV), as well as nitrosamines from food.

Luca Valenti, Paola Dongiovanni, Alberto Piperno, Anna Ludovica Fracanzani, Marco Maggioni, Raffaela Rametta, Paola Loria, Maria Antonietta Casiraghi, Elda Suigo, Roberto Ceriani, Erica Remondini, Paola Trombini, Silvia Fargion – 27 September 2006 – Hyperferritinemia, a common feature of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), has been associated with steatohepatitis and fibrosis. Heterozygosity for α1‐antitrypsin (AAT) mutations is a cofactor of liver damage, and AAT influences inflammation and iron metabolism.

M. Isabel Lucena, Raúl J. Andrade, M. Carmen Fernández, Ketevan Pachkoria, Gloria Pelaez, José A. Durán, Macarena Villar, Luis Rodrigo, Manuel Romero‐Gomez, Ramón Planas, Anabel Barriocanal, Joan Costa, Carlos Guarner, Sonia Blanco, José M.

Max Werth, Rolf Gebhardt, Frank Gaunitz – 27 September 2006 – In mammalian liver, high glutamine synthetase (GS) expression is restricted to hepatocytes surrounding the terminal venules. The most important enhancer of the GS gene is located ≈2520 base pairs (bp) upstream from the transcriptional start point. The nature of the transcription factors that bind to the enhancers has remained enigmatic. In this study, we purified nuclear proteins binding to the element.

Renate G. van der Molen, Dave Sprengers, Paula J. Biesta, Johannes G. Kusters, Harry L. A. Janssen – 27 September 2006 – In patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), 2 predominant precursor dendritic cell (DC) subtypes, the myeloid dendritic cell (mDC) and the plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC), were recently found to be functionally impaired. HBV DNA was found to be present in the DC subtypes, but no viral replication could be detected. The question remains whether simply the presence of the virus and viral proteins causes this dysfunction of DCs.

Jian‐Hua Luo, Baoguo Ren, Sergei Keryanov, George C. Tseng, Uma N. M. Rao, Satdarshan P. Monga, Steven Strom, Anthony J. Demetris, Michael Nalesnik, Yan P. Yu, Sarangarajan Ranganathan, George K. Michalopoulos – 27 September 2006 – This study analyzed gene expression patterns and global genomic alterations in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), hepatoblastomas (HPBL), tissue adjacent to HCC and normal liver tissue derived from normal livers and hepatic resections.