LAUSR

Acute liver failure (ALF) is an important cause of mortality in the western world, accounting for 1600 deaths per year in the United States1 . However, surprisingly little is known about the cellular underpinnings of ALF. In their recent study, Kolodziejczyk et al. (2020)2 present a detailed examination of the cellular circuits governing ALF using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). They propose a novel model of ALF whereby drug toxicity triggers MYC, TLR and downstream P38 signalling, which regulates the activation of tissue-resident macrophages, endothelial cells and hepatic stellate cells.