Agustin Albillos, Jose Luis Lledó, Rafael Bañares, Irma Rossi, Jerónimo Iborra, Jose Luis Calleja, Aurelio Garrido, Pedro Escartin, Jaime Bosch – 1 September 1994 – This study was aimed at investigating whether the blockade of α1‐adrenergic receptors could reduce portal pressure in cirrhosis. Splanchnic and systemic hemodynamics were measured in 12 cirrhotic patients with esophageal varices at baseline and 1 hr after oral administration of 2 mg of prazosin (acute study). Measurements were repeated in 10 of these 12 patients after a 3‐mo course of 5 mg/12 hr of prazosin (long‐term study).

Tsann‐Long Hwang, Ying‐Tung Lau, Shu‐Fang Huang, Miin‐Fu Chen, Maw‐Shung Liu – 1 September 1994 – We studied changes in α1‐adrenergic receptors in human liver plasma membranes during intraabdominal sepsis using [3H]prazosin as a radioligand. Human liver tissues were obtained from nonseptic patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery (control group) and from patients with sepsis requiring laparotomy as a therapeutic measure (septic group).

Ana M. García, M. Elena Martín, Alberto Alcázar, Juan L. Fando, A. M. Salinas – 1 September 1994 – We studied the decline in protein synthesis in the developing liver in suckling rats (4 to 10 days) and adult rats (2 mo). The rate of protein synthesis was measured with a cell‐free system and compared with the activity of two initiation factors, eukaryotic initiation factor‐2 and eukaryotic initiation factor‐2B, and with casein kinase II, which phosphorylates both factors in vitro.

Cornelis J. F. Van Noorden, Ilse M. C. Vogels, Jan James – 1 September 1994 – To evaluate changes in metabolic heterogeneity in rat liver lobules after partial hepatectomy, we measured parameters of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism cytophotometrically in periportal and pericentral zones of livers of mature female and male rats. Glycogen content was shown to be always higher in pericentral zones than in periportal zones.

Sanghoon Cha, Patrick S. C. Leung, Ross L. Coppel, Judy Van De Water, Aftab A. Ansari, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 September 1994 – The polyclonal nature of antimitochondrial autoantibodies and the limited success of generating human monoclonal antibodies have made analysis of fine specificity and antibody heterogeneity difficult to define. The major autoantigen of primary biliary cirrhosis is the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase pathway (PDC‐E2).

Koshi Matsumoto, Hiroaki Fujii, George Michalopoulos, John J. Fung, Anthony J. Demetris – 1 August 1994 – Recombinant growth factors and proinflammatory cytokines were added to primary cultures of human intrahepatic biliary duct epithelia to test for their ability to stimulate DNA synthesis and elicit cytokine production. Interleukin‐6 and hepatocyte and epidermal growth factors were found to increase the DNA labeling index of biliary duct epithelium from fourfold to sixfold 24 hr after their addition to primary biliary duct epithelium cultures maintained in serum‐free medium.

Arrigo Arrigoni, Tiziana Gindro, Giuseppe Aimo, Nazario Cappello, Andrea Meloni, Paolo Benedetti, Gian Paolo Molino, Giorgio Verme, Mario Rizzetto – 1 August 1994 – The aim of this study was to assess the value of the monoethylglicinexylidide assay, a dynamic liver function test based on the determination of the serum concentration of lidocaine major metabolite, as a predictor of survival in cirrhosis.

Gerd‐Achim Kullak‐Ublick, Bruno Hagenbuch, Bruno Stieger, Allan W. Wolkoff, Peter J. Meier – 1 August 1994 – To characterize the transport functions of a recently cloned basolateral organic anion transporting polypeptide of rat hepatocytes we performed further kinetic transport and substrate cis‐inhibition studies in organic anion‐transporting polypeptide—cRNA injected Xenopus laevis oocytes.

David E. Johnston, Rahul Jasuja – 1 August 1994 – We had found several methods of hepatocyte isolation to be inadequate for removing Kupffer and endo thelial cells and so developed a method of selectively killing these nonparenchymal cells in hepatocyte cultures using the known selective uptake and toxicity of the protein synthesis inhibitor ricin and its A chain by nonparenchymal cells. Kupffer cells were quantitated with the Ku‐1 monoclonal antibody.

Markus Lindauer, Konstantin Beier, Alfred Völkl, H. Dariush Fahimi – 1 August 1994 – The hepatic zonation of peroxisomes and four of their matrical enzyme proteins (catalase, acyl coenzyme A oxidase, multifunctional protein, thiolase) has been investigated in normal male rats and after treatment with three divergent hypolipidemic drugs by means of automatic image analysis and quantitative immunoelectron microscopy. The induction of peroxisomal enzymes was confirmed by Western blotting and enzyme activity determinations in liver homogenates and in highly purified peroxisome fractions.