Franco Trevisani, Mauro Bernardi, Vincenzo Arienti, Pietro Scrivano, Alighieri Mazziotti, Antonino Cavallari, Daniela Patrono, Sandro Piazzi, Giuseppe Gozzetti, Giovanni Gasbarrini – 1 February 1994 – Levels of plasma amino acids, ammonia, glucagon and insulin and their 5‐hr responses to a protein feeding were evaluated before and sequentially (3 mo and 1 yr) after distal splenorenal shunt in 10 patients with cirrhosis belonging to Child‐Pugh's class A or B. An index of glucagon effectiveness (plasma glucose/glucagon) was also calculated.

William R. Treem, Piero Rinaldo, Daniel E. Hale, Charles A. Stanley, David S. Millington, Jeffrey S. Hyams, Sandra Jackson, Douglass M. Turnbull – 1 February 1994 – The pathogenesis of acute fatty liver of pregnancy is unknown, but similarities in the clinical presentation and the histological appearance of the liver with those found in children with metabolic defects in the intra‐mitochondrial β‐oxidation pathway of the liver suggest that a disturbance in hepatic fatty acid oxidation may play a role.

David B. Rhoads – 1 February 1994 – The basal hepatocyte phenotype is conferred by the expression of liver‐specific genes. In the adult liver, the basal hepatocyte phenotype is further modified by transcriptional and post‐transcriptional regulation of genes which result in the appearance of specific proteins in selected hepatocytes. One of these proteins is the erythroid/brain or GLUT‐1 glucose transporter. The GLUT‐1 protein is detected in the plasma membrane of only one or two hepatocytes located at the end of the liver cell plate, contiguous to the hepatic venule.

Tatsuya Kanto, Norio Hayashi, Tetsuo Takehara, Hideki Hagiwara, Eiji Mita, Masafumi Naito, Akinori Kasahara, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 February 1994 – Hepatitis C virus is reported to have a low buoyant density in sucrose. To determine the density of hepatitis C virus in the circulation of infected hosts and its association with the degree of liver inflammation, we examined serum samples from 10 patients who were positive for both hepatitis C virus antibody (C100 antigen) antibody and serum hepatitis C virus RNA.

You‐Chen Chao, Shian‐Ren Liou, Ying‐Ying Chung, Hung‐Shang Tang, Chung‐Te Hsu, Ting‐Kai Li, Shih‐Jiun Yin – 1 February 1994 – Liver alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), the principal enzymes responsible for the oxidation of ethanol, are polymorphic at the ADH2, ADH3 and ALDH2 loci in human beings.

William S. Mason, John Cullen, Jeff Saputelli, Tsung‐Teh Wu, Chen Liu, W. Thomas London, Edward Lustbader, Priscilla Schaffer, Anna P. O'Connell, Isabelle Fourel, Carol E. Aldrich, Allison R. Jilbert – 1 February 1994 – This study was carried out to evaluate benefits and limitations of long‐term therapy of hepatitis B virus infections with a nucleoside analog inhibitor of virus replication. The model we used was the domestic duck chronically infected with duck hepatitis B virus by in ovo infection. 2′ Carbodeoxyguanosine was used as an inhibitor of viral DNA synthesis.

Eric M. Webber, Paul J. Godowski, Nelson Fausto – 1 February 1994 – Although growth factor effects have been studied in cultured hepatocytes, little information exists as to whether these factors can trigger hepatocyte replication in vivo. In this study we infused epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor‐α and hepatocyte growth factor directly into the portal vein of rats for 24 hr to see whether they could induce DNA synthesis in normal livers or in livers subjected to one‐third hepatectomy.

Fenton Schaffner, Swan N. Thung – 1 February 1994

Stephen A. Geller, W. Stephen Nichols, Sungsook Kim, Tanya Tolmachoff, Stephen Lee, Mark J. Dycaico, Katherine Felts, Joseph A. Sorge – 1 February 1994 – Z mutant–associated α1‐antitrypsin deficiency in human beings leads to hepatitis and, in some cases, hepatocellular carcinoma. To begin to delineate the molecular basis for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in α1‐antitrypsin deficiency, we previously developed transgenic mice using human α1‐antitrypsin M and Z genomic clones.

Dominic J. Nompleggi, Herbert L. Bonkovsky – 1 February 1994