X Xiol, J M Castellví, J Guardiola, E Sesé, J Castellote, A Perelló, X Cervantes, M J Iborra – 1 April 1996 – Spontaneous bacterial empyema (SBEM) is an infection of a preexisting hydrothorax in cirrhotic patients and has seldom been reported. To determine its incidence and primary characteristics, all cirrhotic patients with pleural effusion underwent thoracentesis at our hospital either on admission or when an infection was suspected.

C Dehmlow, J Erhard, H de Groot – 1 April 1996 – The flavonoid silibinin, the main compound extracted from the milk thistle Silybum marianum, displays hepatoprotective properties in acute and chronic liver injury. To further elucidate the mechanisms by which it acts, we studied the effects of silibinin on different functions of isolated rat Kupffer cells, namely the formation of superoxide anion radical (0), nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐ α), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and leukotriene B4 (LTB4).

S E Dunn, C S Hughes, G A LeBlanc, J M Cullen – 1 April 1996 – The leading cause of human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) is hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Woodchucks infected with a closely related hepadnavirus, woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV), serve as a model for HBV because woodchucks chronically infected with WHV also develop hepatocellular carcinomas. Increased expression of p‐glycoprotein (pgp) in human HCCs is a common obstacle in successful cancer chemotherapy. Pgps are encoded by a family of multidrug‐resistance (MDR) genes.

N Ito, S Kawata, S Tamura, S Kiso, H Tsushima, Y Maeda, E Yamasaki, T Igura, Y Matsuzawa – 1 April 1996 – We investigated short‐term alterations in plasma interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) levels induced by interferon alfa (IFN‐α) injection in 18 patients with chronic hepatitis C. A single intramuscular injection of human recombinant IFN‐α 2a (6 million units [MU]) significantly increased the plasma IL‐6 level 6 hours after the injection (P < .05). On the other hand, the IFN‐α injection did not affect the plasma TNF‐α and IL‐lβ levels.

J M Llovet, R Bartoli, R Planas, B Vinado, J Perez, E Cabre, J Arnal, I Ojanguren, V Ausina, M A Gassull – 1 April 1996 – Bacterial translocation (BT) can be involved in the pathogenesis of severe infections due to bacteria of enteric origin that complicates bleeding cirrhotic patients.

H Kitade, K Sakitani, K Inoue, Y Masu, N Kawada, Y Hiramatsu, Y Kamiyama, T Okumura, S Ito – 1 April 1996 – To investigate whether a single inflammatory cytokine could stimulate nitric oxide formation in the absence of other cytokines or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), NO was measured by the redox chemiluminescence method in primary cultured rat hepatocytes and in rat Kupffer cells.

L Mullauer, B Grasl‐Kraupp, W Bursch, R Schulte‐Hermann – 1 April 1996 – Previous studies have shown 5‐ to 10‐fold higher rates of apoptosis in prestages of liver cancer (putative preneoplastic cell foci [PPF]) than in unaltered liver; fasting or withdrawal of tumor promoters enhanced apoptosis even further. We studied whether transforming growth factor β1 (TGF‐β1), an inducer of apoptosis in normal liver, might be involved in induction of apoptosis in PPF.

L S Friedman – 1 April 1996

A Kooy – 1 April 1996

V DeLedinghen, M P Ripault, C Silvain, M Beauchant, N Raffoux, S Bouquet – 1 April 1996