Benedikt Schaefer, Heinz Zoller, Stefan Schneeberger – 10 November 2017 – Organ shortage requires policies and guidelines to aid organ allocation along the principles of urgency or utility. Identifying patients with significant benefit and withholding liver transplantation (LT) from patients too sick for transplantation are ongoing challenges, in particular in patients with malignancies. An arbitrary threshold of >50% 5‐year overall survival (OS) is broadly considered a minimum standard for LT.

Qiang Liu, Ahmed Nassar, Laura Buccini, Giuseppe Iuppa, Basem Soliman, Daniele Pezzati, Ahmed Hassan, Matthew Blum, William Baldwin, Ana Bennett, Kenneth Chavin, Toshihiro Okamoto, Teresa Diago Uso, John Fung, Kareem Abu‐Elmagd, Charles Miller, Cristiano Quintini – 10 November 2017 – Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) is an emerging technology to preserve liver allografts more effectively than cold storage (CS). However, little is known about the effect of NMP on steatosis and the markers indicative of hepatic quality during NMP.

Jennifer A. Woo Baidal, Erika R. Cheng, Sheryl L. Rifas‐Shiman, Emily Oken, Matthew W. Gillman, Elsie M. Taveras – 9 November 2017 – The extent to which vitamin E (alpha‐tocopherol) intake early in childhood is associated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level later in childhood is unknown. The objective of this research is to test the hypothesis that higher alpha‐tocopherol intake during early childhood is associated with lower odds of elevated ALT levels during mid‐childhood and to examine how body mass index (BMI) influences these relationships.

Anke Hermann, Dirk Oliver Wennmann, Sascha Gromnitza, Maria Edeling, Veerle Van Marck, Marius Sudol, Liliana Schaefer, Kerstin Duning, Thomas Weide, Hermann Pavenstädt, Joachim Kremerskothen – 8 November 2017 – The Hippo pathway regulates cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. Upon activation, it inhibits the import of the transcriptional coactivator yes‐associated protein (YAP) into the nucleus, thus suppressing transcription of pro‐proliferative genes.

Jung Eun Park, Mikang Lee, Seong‐Chul Kim, Yanqiao Zhang, James P. Hardwick, Yoon Kwang Lee – 8 November 2017 – Peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a master regulator for white adipocyte differentiation and lipid storage. The increased level of hepatic PPARγ2 isoform reprograms liver for lipid storage and causes abnormal fat accumulation in certain pathophysiologic conditions. The current study aimed to investigate a role of transcriptional repressor hairy and enhancer of split 6 (HES6) in the regulation of Pparg2 expression and hepatic steatosis induced by diet.

Teresa García‐Lezana, Imma Raurell, Miren Bravo, Manuel Torres‐Arauz, María Teresa Salcedo, Alba Santiago, Andreu Schoenenberger, Chaysavanh Manichanh, Joan Genescà, María Martell, Salvador Augustin – 7 November 2017 – Portal hypertension (PH) drives most of the clinical complications in chronic liver diseases. However, its progression in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and its association with the intestinal microbiota (IM) have been scarcely studied. Our aim was to investigate the role of the IM in the mechanisms leading to PH in early NASH.

Wen‐Juei Jeng, Yi‐Cheng Chen, Rong‐Nan Chien, I‐Shyan Sheen, Yun‐Fan Liaw – 6 November 2017 – Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss is a rare event during nucleos(t)ide analogue (Nuc) therapy. Limited data suggest that stopping Nuc therapy may increase HBsAg loss rate in hepatitis B e antigen–negative patients. A large study was conducted to investigate this issue in more detail. Of the 1,075 hepatitis B e antigen–negative patients treated with Nuc for a median of 156 (61‐430) weeks, 5 showed HBsAg seroclearance during treatment at an estimated annual incidence of 0.15%.

Olympia E. Anastasiou, Foteini Almpani, Anke Herrmann, Guido Gerken, Markus Ditschkowski, Sandra Ciesek – 6 November 2017 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation (HBVr) in recipients of allogeneic hematopoetic stem cells (aHSCs) appears heterogeneously with respect to its frequency, manifestation, and outcome. The aim of this study was to present data from a large German cohort of recipients of aHSC transplantation (aHSCT), focusing on the incidence of HBVr in antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc)‐positive aHSCT recipients, its clinical outcome, and the role of mutations in HBV.

Dar‐In Tai, Wen‐Juei Jeng, Chun‐Yen Lin – 6 November 2017 – Genome‐wide association studies have indicated that human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐DP and HLA‐DQ play roles in persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Asia. To understand the evolution of HBV‐related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to correlate these SNPs with chronic HBV infection among different populations, we conducted a global perspective study on hepatitis‐related SNPs. We selected 12 HBV‐related SNPs on the HLA locus and two HBV and three hepatitis C virus immune‐related SNPs for analysis.

Cyrielle Caussy, Mosab H. Alquiraish, Phirum Nguyen, Carolyn Hernandez, Sandra Cepin, Lynda E. Fortney, Veeral Ajmera, Ricki Bettencourt, Summer Collier, Jonathan Hooker, Ethan Sy, Emily Rizo, Lisa Richards, Claude B. Sirlin, Rohit Loomba – 6 November 2017 – The optimal threshold of controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) for the detection of hepatic steatosis using both M and XL probe is unknown in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).