Maria De Lourdes Ponce, Marcos Rojkind – 1 August 1995 – Laminin belongs to a family of proteins that contains at least seven variants. Together with fibronectin, it is the most important cell‐adhesion protein. Recent data from various laboratories have suggested that liver sinusoidal laminins differ from Engelbert‐Holmes‐Swarm tumor laminin (laminin 1), because the former contain α2 instead of α1 chains. Therefore, we compared the adhesion of hepatocytes to laminin 1 and a matrix extracted with dilute acetic acid from liver biomatrix (LBP).

Morris Sherman, Kevork M. Peltekian, Cindy Lee – 1 August 1995 – Objective: To prospectively determine the prevalence and annual incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in hepatitis B carriers in a heterogeneous urban North American population and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of tests used for screening for this cancer. Design: Prospective cohort study of 1,069 chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus using screening with α‐fetoprotein alone or in combination with ultrasonography every 6 months. Results: The mean age of the cohort was 39 ± 12 years (± SD), 65% were men, 71% were Asians.

Richard Sallie – 1 August 1995 – Objective: To analyze the distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes among patients positive for antibody to HCV (anti‐HCV) according to age, severity of liver disease, and duration of infection; to investigate the influence of HCV genotypes on response to interferon‐α therapy; and to study HCV viremia levels in relation to genotypes and severity of liver disease. Design: Cross‐sectional study. Setting: 3 university hospitals and 2 research units.

Adrian M. Di Bisceglie – 1 August 1995

Mario Strazzabosco, Carlo Poci, Carlo Spirlì, Akos Zsembery, Anna Granato, Maria Luisa Massimino, Gaetano Crepaldi – 1 August 1995 – Intracellular pH (pHi) plays an important role in the metabolic activation of quiescent cells after a proliferative stimulus, and Na+/H+ exchange activity is required for growth in some extrahepatic tumors.

Jiezhong Chen, Michael Murray, Christopher Liddle, Xing‐Mai Jiang, Geoffrey C. Farrell – 1 August 1995 – The effects of bile duct ligation (BDL) on the activity and content of individual hepatic mixed‐function oxidases (MFOs) was examined. Five days after BDL, hepatic microsomal total cytochrome P450 (CYP) content and NADPH‐cytochrome P450‐reductase (P450‐reductase) activity were reduced to 56% and 57% of control, respectively.

Nobukazu Yuki, Norio Hayashi, Kazuyoshi Ohkawa, Hideki Hagiwara, Masahide Oshita, Kazuhiro Katayama, Yutaka Sasaki, Akinori Kasahara, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 August 1995 – The significance of immunoglobulin (Ig) M antibody to hepatitis C virus core protein (IgM anti‐HCVcore) was studied in 41 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection diagnosed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). IgM anti‐HCVcore was tested with a solid‐phase enzyme‐linked immunoassay.

Shigeo Sugano, Tokuya Suzuki, M. Vaubourdolle, O. Chazouilleres, R. Poupon, J. Giboudeau – 1 August 1995

Peter R. Sinclair, Nadia Gorman, Jacqueline F. Sinclair, Heidi S. Walton, William J. Bement, Richard W. Lambrecht – 1 August 1995 – Ascorbate was previously shown to suppress accumulation of uroporphyrin (URO) in cultured chick embryo hepatocytes and to competitively inhibit microsomal oxidation of uroporphyrinogen catalyzed by cytochrome P4501A2.

Patrick S. C. Leung, David T. Chuang, R. Max Wynn, Sanghoon Cha, Dean J. Danner, Aftab Ansari, Ross L. Coppel, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 August 1995 – Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease of liver associated with a unique serologic response to mitochondrial autoantigens. Many of the autoantigens recognized by autoantibodies in PBC are members of the 2‐oxo‐acid dehydrogenase complex. The two major autoantigens are the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC‐E2) and the E2 component of the branched chain 2‐oxo‐acid dehydrogenase complex (BCOADC‐E2).