Harold O. Conn – 1 July 1995 – Objective Results of the first prospective randomized clinical trial comparing partial and total portacaval shunt for variceal hemorrhage are reported. Summary Background Data Total portacaval shunts produce subnormal portal pressures, completely diverting hepatic portal flow. Partial shunts maintain higher pressures and preserve hepatopedal flow. No randomized trials of these two approaches have been performed.

Chia Chiao, Yingchun Zhang, David G. Kaufman, William K. Kaufmann – 1 July 1995 – An immortal line of chemically altered rat hepatocytes was used to study the effects of the liver tumor promoter, phenobarbital (PB), on hepatocyte growth and viability in vitro. When the serum concentration in medium was changed from 10% to 0.5%, cell proliferation decreased and hepatocytes died. Death of the hepatocytes occurred after 2 days in low‐serum medium. PB appeared to control the type of cell death that occurred.

Karin Vanderkerken, Luc Bouwens, Nico Van Rooijen, Kit Van Den Berg, Marijke Baekeland, Eddie Wisse – 1 July 1995 – Pit cells, or hepatic natural killer (NK) cells, present in rat liver sinusoids, represent an organ‐associated NK cell population, with a higher level of activation and a different morphology when compared with peripheral blood NK cells. These cells are the result of an influx of peripheral blood NK cells in the liver microenvironment, followed by an activation or differentiation process toward the highly activated phenotype.

Eugene R. Schiff – 1 July 1995

Alan P. Venook, Linda D. Ferrell, John P. Roberts, Jean Emond, John W. Frye, Ernest Ring, Nancy L. Ascher, John R.

Susan Kennedy, Steve Rettinger, M. Wayne Flye, Katherine Parker Ponder – 1 July 1995 – One hypothesis is that postnatal liver growth involves replication of mature hepatocytes, which have an unlimited proliferative potential. An alternative viewpoint is that only certain periportal cells can replicate extensively and that daughter cells stream slowly from the periportal to the pericentral region of the liver. Transgenic mice expressing the beta‐galactosidase (β‐gal) gene from the human α1 antitrypsin promoter were used to examine the proliferative potential of hepatocytes.

Janine S. McMillan, Tim Shaw, Peter W. Angus, Stephen A. Locarnini – 1 July 1995 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA‐transfected hepatoma cells were incubated with the immunosuppressive agents prednisolone, azathioprine, and cyclosporin A (CsA) and the antiviral agents ganciclovir and foscarnet to investigate the effects of these compounds on HBV replication. Prednisolone and azathioprine increased in‐tracellular viral DNA and RNA levels approximately twofold and fourfold, respectively. Treatment with CsA did not alter the levels of viral RNA or DNA.

Russell H. Wiesner, Ruud A. F. Krom – 1 July 1995

Norman D. Grace – 1 July 1995

1 July 1995