M Tapner, C Liddle, B Goodwin, J George, G C Farrell – 1 August 1996 – Administration of interferons of both the γ and alfa/β classes down‐regulates hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes when administered to humans or rats. In male rats, interferons decrease expression of CYP3A2 at a pretranslational level, but because interferons also release other cytokines in vivo, it is unclear whether this is a direct effect on hepatocytes. We therefore examined the effects of rat recombinant interferon γ (IFN‐γ) on CYP3A2, other 3A genes, and 2C11 in stable primary cultures of male rat hepatocytes.

S Arii, M Mise, T Harada, M Furutani, S Ishigami, M Niwano, M Mizumoto, M Fukumoto, M Imamura – 1 August 1996 – The prognosis for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) depends mainly on the clinicopathological characteristic regarding invasion and metastasis. In addition, another distinguishing feature of HCC is the high incidence of concomitant liver cirrhosis, in which the extracellular matrix proliferates markedly.

P Bedossa, T Poynard – 1 August 1996 – Histological activity reflects the global assessment of basic necroinflammatory lesions and is a criterion of major importance in chronic hepatitis C. The aim of this study was to propose and test the accuracy of a simple algorithm that generates a single activity score based on basic pathological features. A panel of 10 pathologists reviewed 363 chronic hepatitis C liver biopsies and graded the activity of hepatitis according to their own experience (reference activity).

Giuseppe Francesco Stefanini, Francesco Giuseppe Foschi, Lorenzo Marsigli, Cristiana Fumelli, Gian Luca Grazi, Gunnar Söderdahl, Ole Suhr, Gösta Holmgren, Gustaf Herlenius, Bo‐Göran Ericzon, Jean‐Francois Desjardins, Jean‐Piere Campion, Bruno Clement, Pierre‐Alain Clavien – 1 July 1996

1 July 1996

Rifaat Safadi, Daniel Shouval, Ran Tur Kaspa, Yaffa Ashur, Yaron Ilan – 1 July 1996 – Mixed cryoglobulinemia is a well‐known complication after hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We report five cases in which cryoglobulinemia appeared or grossly exacerbated following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Cryoglobulinemia and the associated clinical symptoms resolved or improved in two patients treated with ribavirin after liver transplantation, while plasmapheresis was ineffective in another patient.

S Suzuki, S Nakamura, A Serizawa, T Sakaguchi, H Konno, H Muro, I Kosugi, S Baba – 1 July 1996 – The hypothesis that both activated Kupffer cells and the spleen may be responsible for endotoxin‐induced liver injury following partial hepatectomy was investigated.

K Maezono, K Kajiwara, K Mawatari, A Shinkai, K Torii, T Maki – 1 July 1996 – The liver is the main organ involved in amino acid metabolism, and it utilizes glucogenic amino acids as substrates for glucose or adenosine triphosphate (ATP), but this process is impaired in clinical and experimental liver diseases. In this study, we administered high doses of amino acids in rats or cultured hepatocytes with experimental models of liver injury to examine whether such supplementation could attenuate liver damage.

K F Petersen, A B West, A Reuben, D L Rothman, G I Shulman – 1 July 1996 – Hepatic lipid content was assessed noninvasively in 15 patients with hepatic steatosis by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and compared in a double‐blind fashion with histological grading and morphometric quantitation of fat in liver biopsies taken within 2 weeks of the study. The lipid content in the liver biopsies was expressed as the volume fraction of total parenchyma occupied by fat.

J H Hoofnagle, M Lombardero, R K Zetterman, J Lake, M Porayko, J Everhart, S H Belle, K M Detre – 1 July 1996 – To evaluate the effect of donor age on graft and patient outcome after liver transplantation an analysis of a large‐scale cohort study was performed at three tertiary referral liver transplant centers. Between April 1990 and June 1994, 772 adults underwent an initial single‐organ liver transplantation. The age of the donors averaged 35 years;193 (25%) were 50 or above, the age used to define “older” donors. Groups were compared for demographic, clinical, and biochemical features.