Mar Decastro, Javier Sánchez, Jesús F. Herrera, Asunción Cháves, Rafael Durán, Luisa García ‐Buey, Carmelo García‐Monzón, Julia Sequí, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero – 1 April 1993 – The recent identification of the hepatitis C virus and development of assays to detect antibodies to hepatitis C virus has allowed assessment of the prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in patients with a variety of liver and other diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies and severity of liver injury in patients with porphyria cutanea tarda.

S. K. Sarin, V. Bhatia – 1 April 1993 – Background. Endoscopic sclerotherapy is an accepted treatment for bleeding esophageal varices, but it is associated with substantial local and systemic complications. Endoscopic ligation, a new form of endoscopic treatment for bleeding varices, may be safer. We compared the effectiveness and safety of the two techniques.

James P. Corsetti, Janet D. Sparks, Barbara Sikora, Charles E. Sparks – 1 April 1993 – Hepatocellular heterogeneity of biochemical function is well established for many aspects of liver metabolism. This study addresses the question of cellular heterogeneity in the catabolism of low‐density lipoprotein by rat hepatocytes. Low‐density lipo‐protein binding (4° C) and uptake (37° C) by rat hepatocytes were studied by use of human low‐density lipoprotein labeled with a highly fluorescent lipophilic probe, N, N‐dipentadecylaminostyrylpyridinium iodide, recently developed by us.

Hani M. Rashed, Hui Sun, Tarun B. Patel – 1 April 1993 – To investigate whether atrial natriuretic factor regulates the growth of hepatocytes and to determine the receptor subtype involved in such modulation, we studied the effect of atrial natriuretic factor 103–126 and clearance receptor binding analogs of atrial natriuretic factor, (des‐(Q116, S117, G118, L119, G120) atrial natriuretic factor 102–121 and des‐(C105,121) atrial natriuretic factor 104–126) on growth of human hepatoblastoma cells.

Mei Mao‐Hua, An Wei, Zhang Bao‐Hong, Shao Qing, Gong De‐Zheng – 1 April 1993 – Hepatic stimulator substance was extracted from the liver of weanling Sprague‐Dawley rats according to the method of LaBrecque. Quang‐Ming mice were injected with carbon tetrachloride to induce acute liver failure. Hepatic stimulator substance suppressed the elevation of ALT and AST induced by carbon tetrachloride in a dose‐dependent manner.

Koshilya Rijhsinghani, Ho‐Soon H. Choi, Leroy A. Burton, Fiorenzo Paronetto, Nicola Tavoloni – 1 April 1993 – Recent studies have suggested that hepatic stem cells may be involved in at least some forms of liver epithelial growth. To obtain further information on this controversial hypothesis, we treated rats with lead nitrate to induce liver growth and identified the cells undergoing early DNA synthesis by bromodeoxyuridine immunohistochemistry, using both light and electron microscopic detection methods.

1 April 1993

Renée E. Poupon, Yves Chrétien, Raoul Poupon, Gustav Paumgartner – 1 April 1993 – Serum bile acid levels and distributions were studied every 6 mo in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis who were randomly assigned to receive ursodeoxycholic acid (13 to 15 mg/kg/day) (n = 73) or a placebo (n = 73) over a 2‐yr period. In the ursodeoxycholic acid group, ursodeoxycholic acid was the predominant serum bile acid at 6 mo and throughout the 2‐yr treatment period.

Zoltán Spolarics, John J. Spitzer – 1 April 1993 – Glucose use and pentose cycle activity were determined in freshly isolated rat hepatic endothelial cells 3 hr after an intravenous injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (0.1 mg/kg body weight), by use of (1‐14C)glucose, [6‐14C]glucose and [2‐H]glucose. Lipopolysaccharide treatment in vivo increased glucose use fivefold, whereas glucose oxidation in the pentose cycle was elevated from 0.2 to 1.5 nmol/hr/107 cells.

Ke‐Xin Liu, Yukio Kato, Masayo Yamazaki, Osamu Higuchi, Toshikazu Nakamura, Yuichi Sugiyama – 1 April 1993 – To examine whether a decrease in hepatic uptake, clearance or both of hepatocyte growth factor contributes to increased plasma hepatocyte growth factor levels, we kinetically analyzed hepatic hepatocyte growth factor handling using rats with carbon tetrachloride–induced liver injury in both in vivo and perfused liver systems.