1 August 1992

James R. Baker – 1 August 1992 – Individuals with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are generally divided into asymptomatic healthy carriers and patients with chronic liver disease. Several studies have suggested that the hepatitis B core antigen could be an immunological target of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). To investigate the possible pressure site from CTL, the entire core region of HBV DNA was sequenced in 30 subjects (10 asymptomatic healthy carriers and 20 patients with chronic liver disease).

Tetsuo Ikeda, Katsuhiko Yanaga, Keiji Kishikawa, Saburo Kakizoe, Mitsuo Shimada, Keizo Sugimachi – 1 August 1992 – Using liver allografts with warm or cold ischemia, we evaluated functional and morphological alterations in hepatocytes, sinusoidal endothelial cells and Kupffer cells in a rat transplantation model. All recipients of allografts with either 4 hr of cold or 30 min of warm ischemia lived more than 22 days and were judged viable. On the other hand, all recipients of grafts with 6 hr of cold or 60 min of warm ischemia died within 2 days and were therefore judged to be nonviable.

Hajime Takikawa, Makoto Fujiyoshi, Kou Nishikawa, Masami Yamanaka – 1 August 1992 – We previously reported that the human Y′ bile acid binder, which has higher bile acid binding affinities than rat Y′ binders (3α‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases), has dihydrodiol dehydrogenase activity and is different from 3α‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases. In this study, 3α‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases and 3β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase were purified from human liver, and bile acid binding affinities and enzyme kinetics of the 3α‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases were studied.

Yoshiyuki Nakatsuji, Akihiro Matsumoto, Eiji Tanaka, Hiroyuki Ogata, Kendo Kiyosawa – 1 August 1992 – Serum samples from 100 patients with non‐A, non‐B hepatitis–related chronic liver disease and 100 patients with hepatitis B–related chronic liver disease were tested by first‐generation and second‐generation enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays, a second‐generation recombinant immunoblot assay and the nested polymerase chain reaction.

Norifumi Kawada, Natsuo Ueda, Yasuhiro Mizoguchi, Kenzo Kobayashi, Takeyuki Monna, Seiji Morisawa, Kazunori Ishimura, Toshiko Suzuki, Shozo Yamamoto – 1 August 1992 – Rats were treated with heat‐killed Propionibacterium acnes and subsequent injection of a small amount of lipopolysaccharide after 7 days. After 24 hr most of the rats died of massive liver cell necrosis. Nonparenchymal liver cells were isolated from this liver injury model and incubated with arachidonic acid.

John C. Hoefs – 1 August 1992 – The albumin difference or gradient between serum ascites is presumed to be an effective estimate of the colloid osmotic pressure gradient, although this has never been directly demonstrated. The colloid osmotic pressure gradient is controlled by the degree of portal hypertension. Thus the albumin gradient is clinically useful in detecting patients with ascites caused by portal hypertension, although some overlap in such patients' albumin gradients exists compared with those of patients without portal hypertension.

J. Mark Farrant, Derek G. Doherty, Peter T. Donaldson, Robert W. Vaughan, Karen M. Hayllar, Ken I. Welsh, Adrian L. W. F. Eddleston, Roger Williams – 1 August 1992 – Previous studies based on serological HLA phenotyping have implicated genes in the HLA class II region in susceptibility to and protection from primary sclerosing cholangitis. In a recent report, the HLA DRw52a antigen was present in all 29 patients who had been referred for liver transplantation.

Kenneth Devaney, Zachary D. Goodman, Kamal G. Ishak – 1 August 1992 – Giant‐cell hepatitis is a frequent pattern of liver injury in the neonate, but it is rare after infancy. Such cases have been attributed to autoimmune disease, to non‐A, non‐B hepatitis and, most recently, to paramyxovirus infection. To better define the entity of postinfantile (syncytial) giant‐cell hepatitis, we reviewed 24 biopsy specimens from 20 patients with this finding, either alone or in combination with other diagnoses. The number of multinucleated giant cells varied greatly from one specimen to another.

Yasushi Shiratori, Ryo Nakata, Ken'ichi Okano, Yutaka Komatsu, Shuichiro Shiina, Tateo Kawase, Tsuneaki Sugimoto, Masao Omata, Mitsugu Tanaka – 1 August 1992 – This study investigates the role of hepatic asialo GM1–positive cells in inhibiting hepatic metastasis of colon carcinoma (colon adenocarcinoma 38) in mice after administration of a biological response modifier, streptococcal derivative (OK432).