Kenichi Kitani, Setsuko Kanai, Yuko Sato, Minoru Ohta – 1 April 1994 – Male Wistar rats were infused intravenously with taurochenodeoxycholate (0.4 μmol/min/100 gm) alone (group A) or with one of the three bile salts (tauroursodeoxycholate [group B], tauro β‐muricholate [group C] or tauro α‐muricholate [group D]) at a rate of 0.2 μmol/min/100/gm for 1 hr. One‐hour bile flow and bile salt excretion rates were significantly lower in group A than in the other three coinfused (B, C, D) groups.

Yasuo Sato, Takahiro Ochiya, Yuko Yasuda, Kenichi Matsubara – 1 April 1994 – Poly‐N‐para‐vinylbenzyl‐lactonamide (PVLA)‐coated reticulated polyurethane (PVLA‐RPU) has been employed for the long‐term maintenance of primary rat hepatocyte cultures. After 3 days of incubation of 2 × 107 hepatocytes/cm3 embedded in PVLA‐RPU discs and kept in culture medium, most cells showed typical hepatocyte morphology, with some bile canaliculus‐like intercellular spaces among the hepatocytes on examination with scanning and transmission electron microscopy.

Shigwang Qian, Anthony J. Demetris, Noriko Murase, Abdul S. Rao, John J. Fung, Thomas E. Starzl – 1 April 1994 – Nonarterialized orthotopic liver transplantation with no immunosuppression was performed in 13 mouse‐strain combinations. Two strain combinations with major histocompatibility complex class I and class II and minor histocompatibility complex disparity had 20% and 33% survival of more than 100 days, but the other 11 combinations, including four that were fully allogeneic and all with only class I, class II or minor disparities, yielded 45% to 100% survival of more than 100 days.

Maan Anbari, Karen V. Root, Rebecca W. Van Dyke – 1 April 1994 – Endocytic vesicles are acidified by an electrogenic proton pump and a parallel chloride conductance; however, acidification might be decreased if electrogenic transporters, such as Na,K‐ATPase, that increase vesicle interior‐positive membrane potential were also present. We examined this issue in early rat liver endosomes using ion substitution and inhibitors to alter Na,K‐ATPase activity.

1 April 1994

Fred H. Williams, Dwain L. Thiele – 1 April 1994 – In these studies, we examined the role of discrete classes of alloantigen differences in generating nonsuppurative cholangitis during graft‐vs.‐host disease. Transfer of C57BL/6J (B6) splenocytes to class I major histocompatibility complex‐disparate bm1 × B6 F1, class II major histocompatibility complex‐disparate B6 × bm12 F1, or multiple non‐major histocompatibility complex antigen‐disparate Balb,B × B6 F1 mice led to the development of periportal inflammatory infiltrates and lymphocyte invasion of bile duct walls.

Robert J. McDonald, Harrison W. Farber – 1 April 1994

Hansa M. Shahi, Gourdas Choudhuri – 1 April 1994

Santosh Man Shrestha, Fumio Tsuda, Hiroaki Okamoto, Hajime Tokita, Minoru Horikita, Takeshi Tanaka, Yuzo Miyakawa, Makoto Mayumi – 1 April 1994 – A total of 145 patients with chronic liver disease, including 20 with chronic hepatitis, 63 with cirrhosis and 62 with primary hepatocellular carcinoma from Nepal were tested for markers of hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus infection. HBsAg was detected in 57 (39%) and hepatitis C virus RNA in 12 (8%); the cause of liver disease was not known in the remaining 76 (52%).

Jaw‐Ching Wu, Chih‐Li Chen, Ming‐Chih Hou, Trong‐Zong Chen, Shou‐Dong Lee, Kwang‐Juei Lo – 1 April 1994 – We tested serum samples from 25 fulminant hepatitis and 7 subfulminant hepatitis patients for hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viral markers and nucleic acids by means of polymerase chain reaction to determine the role of each virus on such catastrophic events in an area endemic for hepatitis B.