Takeaki Suou, Keiko Hosho, Yukihiro Kishimoto, Yasushi Horie, Hironaka Kawasaki – 1 August 1995 – To evaluate the effect of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) on the hepatic extracellular matrix, we investigated the changes in serum N‐terminal propeptide of type III procollagen during and after 4 months of INF‐α treatment in 178 treated and 45 nontreated patients with chronic hepatitis C. Serum pretreatment levels in nonresponders were significantly higher than those in long‐term and short‐term responders, but those levels were not different in the latter two groups.

Michiko Shindo, Ken Arai, Yoshihiro Sokawa, Tadao Okuno – 1 August 1995 – We investigated anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) titers, HCV RNA levels in liver and serum, genetic variability in the hypervariable region of the genome, the form of the virus in the circulation, and liver histology in 21 anti‐HCV‐positive subjects with sustained normal liver biochemical values. Titer of anti‐HCV was determined by second generation anti‐HCV‐passive hemagglutination assay, and HCV RNA levels were semiquantitated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

James V. Sitzmann, Yuping Wu, Greti Acuilera, Paul A. Cahill, R. Cartland Burns – 1 August 1995 – Decreased splanchnic vascular response to exogenous angiotensin‐II (A‐II) infusion in portal hypertension has recently been documented. A‐II receptor density and binding affinity in the mesenteric artery, portal vein, and adrenal gland of normal and portal hypertensive rabbits were studied. Portal hypertension was induced by partial portal vein ligation 3 weeks before study.

Jörg C. Gerlach, Norbert Schnoy, Jens Encke, Mark D. Smith, Christian Müller, Peter Neuhaus – 1 August 1995 – Primary pig hepatocytes form a tissuelike structure in an in vitro culture model that has provision for threedimensional cell orientation, cell aggregation, decentralized cell perfusion with low metabolite gradients, integral oxygenation, and nonparenchymal cell coculture. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has shown that hepatocytes spontaneously form aggregates in a three‐dimensional structure between and on the surface of artificial capillaries.

Bruce A. Marcel – 1 August 1995

Akira Kaneko, Norio Hayashi, Yuji Tanaka, Masayoshi Horimoto, Toshifumi Ito, Yutaka Sasaki, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 August 1995 – The effect of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on the Na+/H+ exchanger was studied using primary cultured hepatocytes. HGF induced intracellular pH (pHi) elevation of 0.10 pH units in hepatocytes cultured for 4 to 7 hours; the response was lower after other culture periods. Even with the same culture period, intercellular heterogeneity was found in the responsiveness to HGF.

Donald R. Taylor, Roger S. Crowther, John C. Cozart, Pamela Sharrock, Jinguang Wu, Roger D. Soloway – 1 August 1995 – This study of sets of cholesterol gallstones collected consecutively from 222 patients in La Paz, Bolivia, and Mexico City, Mexico, has developed a reliable infrared (IR) spectroscopic method for the detection of calcium carbonate in cholesterol gallstones and provided the basis for simultaneous identification of each of its three polymorphs: calcite, vaterite, and aragonite.

1 August 1995

Decherd Stump, Richard A. Weisiger, Paul D. Berk – 1 August 1995 – Long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) are an important energy substrate used by cardiac myocytes and other cells, but the mechanism whereby these molecules cross the plasma membrane is poorly understood. We used an expression cloning strategy and a cDNA library from 3T3‐L1 adipocytes to identify a cDNA that, when expressed in cultured cells, augments uptake of LCFAs.

A. J. Demetris – 1 August 1995