Koichi Tsuneyama, Judy van de Water, Patrick S. C. Leung, Sanghoon Cha, Yasuni Nakanuma, Marshall Kaplan, Ronald de Lellis, Ross Coppel, Aftab Ansari, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 April 1995 – Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune liver disease characterized histologically by non‐suppurative destructive cholangitis. Sera from patients with PBC react with a series of intramitochondrial enzymes with the immunodominant response directed against the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC‐E2).

Dagny Ståhlberg, Eva Reihnér, Mats Rudling, Lars Berglund, Kurt Einarsson, Bo Angelin – 1 April 1995 – Bezafibrate is a hypolipidemic fibric acid derivative known to induce cholesterol supersaturation of bile. To characterize its effects on hepatic cholesterol metabolism, 31 normolipidemic, normal‐weight patients with gallstones undergoing cholecystectomy were studied. Eleven patients (5 men) were randomized to treatment with bezafibrate, 200 mg three times daily for 4 weeks before operation; the remaining 20 patients (5 men) served as nontreatment controls.

Toshirou Nishida, Mingxin Che, Zenaida Gatmaitan, Irwin M. Arias – 1 April 1995 – The adenosine triphosphate (ATP)‐dependent transport system is a major determinant of canalicular bile acid secretion. The system transports bile acids and neither organic cations nor non—bile acid organic anions, such as glucuronides or glutathione adducts. To define the structural specificity of the ATP‐dependent system, the authors examined the ability of various bile acids to inhibit ATP‐dependent taurocholate transport by rat liver canalicular membrane vesicles.

Martin Hertl, P. Robert C. Harvey, Paul E. Swanson, Delin D. West, Todd K. Howard, Surendra Shenoy, Steven M. Strasberg – 1 April 1995 – Preservation injury to bile ducts is a serious problem in liver transplantation, especially when preservation exceeds 12 hours. The authors hypothesized that the injury was caused by contact of bile ducts with bile salts during cold preservation and might be preventable by infusion of more hydrophilic bile salts.

Pierre Moffatt, Gabriel L. Plaa, Francine Denizeau – 1 April 1995 – Metallothionein (MT) is a small cysteine‐rich protein thought to be mainly involved in metal regulation and detoxification. The implication of MT in cell growth and differentiation has also been suggested. This latter hypothesis was further investigated in adult rat hepatocytes induced to proliferate by epidermal growth factor (EGF). Exposure of hepatocytes to EGF resulted in significant increases (≈twofold) in MT protein and MT‐1 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels, which were maximal after 48 hours.

Domenico Alvaro, Antonio Benedetti, Alessandro Gigliozzi, Adriano Bini, Paola Della Guardia, Tiziana la Rosa, Anne Marie Jezequel, Livio Capocaccia – 1 April 1995 – We investigated whether bile salts (BS) with different hydrophobic‐hydrophilic properties interact with ethanol on bile secretion, enzyme (aspartate transaminase [AST], lactate dehydrogenase [LDH]) release in the perfusate, liver ultrastructure, and vesicular exocytosis in the isolated perfused rat liver.

Bernard D. Clifford, Daniel Donahue, Lynda Smith, Edward Cable, Brigit Luttig, Michael Manns, Herbert L. Bonkovsky – 1 March 1995 – The advent of specific antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C has increased the importance of establishing the correct etiology of chronic hepatitis in patients, especially because interferon alfa (IFN‐α) has been reported to exacerbate autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), whereas corticosteroids increase viral replication in chronic hepatitis C.

Marie Anne Loriot, Patrick Marcellin, Nathalie Talbodec, Véronique Guigonis, Michèle Gigou, Nathalie Boyer, Annie Bezeaud, Serge Erlinger, Jean Pierre Benhamou – 1 March 1995 – The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore mutations in patients with anti‐HBe—positive chronic hepatitis B with or without previous known HBe antigen (HBeAg) viremic phase, and to assess the potential implication of precore mutants in HBeAg—negative reactivation after loss of HBeAg.

Luigi Roffi, Guido Colloredo Mels, Guido Antonelli, Giorgio Bellati, Fabio Panizzuti, Alberto Piperno, Massimo Pozzi, Davide Ravizza, Giovanni Angeli, Ferdinando Dianzani, Giuseppe Mancia – 1 March 1995 – Recombinant interferon alfa (r‐IFNα2) has been shown to normalize the aminotransferase levels in approximately 50% of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Few patients experience a relapse during the treatment, in spite of a complete initial response (breakthrough). We studied 191 HCV Ab‐positive patients with histologically proven chronic hepatitis.

Pierre Bedossa, Eric Peltier, Benoit Terris, Dominique Franco, Thierry Poynard – 1 March 1995 – Transforming growth factor‐Beta 1 (TGF‐β1) is an important mediator of control of liver cell proliferation and replication. The aim of the current study was to compare TGF‐β1 gene expression, protein synthesis, and cell membrane receptors in normal liver, cirrhotic nodules, and neoplastic human livers. Five surgical resections for metastasis in an otherwise normal liver and 25 resections for hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis were included in this study.