J. Michael Henderson – 1 March 1993

Eugenio Gaudio, Luigi Pannarale, Paolo Onori, Oliviero Riggio – 1 March 1993 – Hepatic microcirculation has been related to liver function in several studies. The principle of this relationship lies in the sequential distribution of blood from the feeding vessels of the hepatic acinus to the central vein. This study was undertaken to investigate the progressive changes at different sites of the liver microvascular bed in the developing cirrhosis, both by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy of corrosion casts.

Bernhard H. Lauterburg, Dana Liang, Felix A. Schwarzenbach, Kerry J. Breen – 1 March 1993 – Mitochondria of patients with alcoholic liver disease are morphologically abnormal, and mitochondria isolated from animals exposed to ethanol exhibit functional deficiencies in vitro. Because the functional consequences of the morphological alterations and the relevance of in vitro observations to mitochondrial function in alcoholic subjects are not clear, we assessed mitochondrial function noninvasively with a breath test.

A. H. Leontine Mulder, Gerda Horst, Elizabeth B. Haagsma, Pieter C. Limburg, Jan H. Kleibeuker, Cees G. M.

Ronald L. Koretz, Maria Brezina, Alan J. Polito, Stella Quan, Judith Wilber, Robert Dinello, Gary Gitnick – 1 March 1993 – Using assays to detect antibodies against antigens (C‐100, 5‐1‐1, C‐22 and C‐33) of the hepatitis C virus, we tested stored sera from 40 patients prospectively identified as having non‐A, non‐B posttransfusion hepatitis. The 28 patients who demonstrated seroconversion (“documented hepatitis C”) had more severe initial disease; all 20 cases of chronic hepatitis occurred in this subgroup.

Dirk De Craemer, Marina Pauwels, Frank Roels – 1 March 1993 – Hepatocellular peroxisomes in 32 patients with cirrhosis were studied by means of catalase cytochemical and morphometric analysis. Seven normal human livers were used as controls. The severity of the cirrhosis was determined with the Child‐Turcotte criteria. Under the light microscope, a decrease in catalase staining was observed in 12 livers. Staining showed a weak inverse correlation with severity of the cirrhotic process. Peroxisomes revealed a perinuclear configuration in 24 patients.

Ching‐Lung Lai, Johnson Y. N. Lau, Pui‐Chee Wu, Henry Ngan, Hau‐Tim Chung, Stuart J. Mitchell, Timothy J. Corbett, Anthony W. C. Chow, Hsiang‐Ju Lin – 1 March 1993 – To evaluate the clinical efficacy of interferon‐α in hepatocellular carcinoma, 71 adult Chinese patients with histologically proven inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma were randomized to receive recombinant interferon‐α2a (50 × 106 IU/m2) intramuscularly three times a week (n = 35) or no antitumor therapy (n = 36).

James J. Crawford – 1 February 1993 – The vectorial nature of hepatocyte receptor‐mediated endocytosis (RME) and its susceptibility to cytoskeletal disruptors has suggested that a polarized network of microtubules plays a vital role in directed movement during sorting. Using as markers a wellknown ligand, asialoorosomucoid, and its receptor, we have isolated endocytic vesicles that bind directly to and interact with stabilized endogenous hepatocyte microtubules at specific times during a synchronous, experimentally initiated, single wave of RME.

Fuchu He, Chutse Wu, Qiang Tu, Guichun Xing – 1 February 1993 – Cloning of human hepatic stimulator substance requires clarification of whether the substance is the product of gene expression of liver cells. In this article the translation experiment in Xenopus laevis oocytes indicates that poly (A)+ messenger RNA of human fetal liver cells could conduct the biosynthesis of human hepatic stimulator substance.

Joseph M. Romeo, Paul P. Ulrich, Michael P. Busch, Girish N. Vyas – 1 February 1993 – A novel reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay has been developed that uses drop‐in–drop‐out primers for the heminested amplification of hepatitis C virus complementary DNA. This assay has been used for analysis of the prevalence of hepatitis C virus RNA in a set of 53 plasma specimens from blood donations that were repeatedly reactive for hepatitis C virus antibodies with the first‐generation enzyme immunoassay.