Pei‐Yun Shu, Chungming Chang, Lih‐Hwa Hwan, Cheng‐Po Hu – 1 August 1993 – The characterization of immune responses to hepatitis B virus is crucial for the understanding of hepatitis B virus–caused liver disease. However, lack of a suitable autologous effector–target cell system makes a precise study of the pathogenesis of hepatitis B difficult. In this study we established a model system by using autologous HBcAg‐expressing Epstein‐Barr virus–immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines as stimulator/target cells.

Ralph H. Schwall, Kim Robbins, Paula Jardieu, Ling Chang, Cora La, Timothy G. Terrel – 1 August 1993 – While studying endocrine responses to activin in female rats, we discovered that activin caused a marked reduction in liver mass. The regressed livers exhibited no gross signs of necrosis or infarction, but histopathological evaluation revealed extensive cell death in the centrilobular regions. The dying cells appeared to fragment into structures resembling apoptotic bodies.

Oliver Esch, Claudio D. Schteingart, Dirk Pappert, Diane Kirby, Rita Streich, Alan F. Hofman – 1 August 1993 – We performed experiments in anesthetized piglets with two cholesterol gallstone solvents, methyl tertbutyl ether and ethyl propionate, to determine whether blood levels of either solvent would increase during gallbladder instillation of these solvents under conditions simulating gallstone dissolution.

Narumi Ohara, Norbert F. Voelke, Shih‐Wen Chang – 1 July 1993 – Advanced cirrhosis is known to be associated with extrahepatic organ dysfunction, but the mechanism for this cirrhosis complication is largely unknown. We measured tissue albumin leakage in rats with biliary cirrhosis or acute cholestasis and tested the hypothesis that arachidonic acid metabolites contribute to the vascular permeability change.

Alexandru I. Musat, Carol A. Sattler, Gerald L. Sattler, Henry C. Pitot – 1 July 1993 – The cell–basement membrane interaction is an important determinant of epithelial cell polarity. Although hepatocytes in situ are polarized, no morphologically identifiable basement membrane is found at their basal surface. However, several studies have demonstrated immunoreactivity to basement membrane proteins in the space of Disse, indicating the existence of an extracellular matrix, albeit of low density.

Paul D. Berk – 1 July 1993 – Health care costs are climbing throughout the western world. Aging populations and the costs of advanced technology are the principal forces behind much of this global increase. No country has yet succeeded in containing these growing costs other than by some form of rationing. A variety of experimental strategies, including managed competition, are being considered or tested, but none is clearly effective.

Joel Bass – 1 July 1993

Alan A. Seawright, Roger T. Snowden, I. Olusola Olubuyide, Joan Riley, David J. Judah, Gordon E. Neal – 1 July 1993 – A need exists for an appropriate animal model for the involvement of both hepatitis B virus infection and ingestion of aflatoxins in the etiology of liver cancer. Duck hepatitis B virus–infected ducks, on the basis of hepatoma development in the wild in China, appear to offer this possibility. The duck has been reexamined as a model system, and key metabolic processes have been assayed in comparison with the rat model for hepatocarcinogenesis.

K. S. Koch, R. G. Fletcher, M. P. Grond, H. L. Leffert – 1 July 1993

Robert Flisiak, Enrique Baraona, Jianjun Li, Charles S. Lieber – 1 July 1993 – Fat‐storing cells participate in the development of alcoholic liver disease. To study possible effects of ethanol on prostaglandin metabolism by fat‐storing cells, we isolated them from normal rat liver. Cultured fat‐storing cells produced substantial amounts (DNA, about 2 ng/μg every 24 hr) of prostaglandin E2 and prostaglandin I2 (measured as 6‐keto prostaglandin F1α) but no significant amounts of prostaglandin F2α.