Shinji Osada, Yukio Okano, Shigetoyo Saji, Yoshinori Nozawa – 1 February 1994 – A considerable fraction of freshly prepared hepatocytes loaded with the fluorescent [Ca2+]i indicator fura‐2 exhibited spontaneous rhythmic fluctuations that tended to decrease with increasing length of incubation after isolation. These oscillations were dependent on the external Ca2+. They could no longer be observed when a Ca2+ chelator–(ethylenebis [oxyethylenenitrilo]) tetraacetic acid–was added to medium.

Raymond S. Koff – 1 February 1994

Silvio Magrin, Antonio Craxi, Carmelo Fabiano, Rosa Giovanna Simonetti, Germana Fiorentino, Liliana Marino, Orazia Diquattro, Vito Di Marco, Oreste Loiacono, Riccardo Volpes, Piero Almasio, Mickey S. Urdea, Paul Neuwald, Ray Sanchez‐Pescador, Jill Detmer, Judith C. Wilber, Luigi Pagliaro – 1 February 1994 – We assessed the pattern of hepatitis C viremia in chronic liver disease by studying 100 hepatitis C virus antibody–positive patients: 48 with chronic hepatitis, 21 with cirrhosis and 31 with hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis.

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.