Giovanna Fattovich, Giuliano Giustina, Lucio Brollo, Maria Guido, Patrizia Pontisso, Franco Noventa, Alfredo Alberti – 1 November 1992 – About one third of patients with chronic hepatitis B show a sustained response when treated with interferon‐α. Combining interferon‐α with immunomodulators might be a way to increase response rate. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of lymphoblastoid interferon‐α given alone with its efficacy when combined with levamisole in chronic hepatitis B.

1 November 1992

Francesco William Guglielmi, Tecla Mastronuzzi, Maria de Marco, Lucia Laddaga, Carmine Panella, Antonio Francavilla – 1 November 1992 – Progressive degrees of metabolic alterations are frequent in cirrhosis impairing peripheral tissue and body composition. Hepatocellular carcinoma worsens protein wasting and malnutrition. A normal energy production rate and an abnormal substrate oxidation rate are well‐known findings in cirrhosis; however, no data are available on cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Axel M. Gressner, Sina Lotfi, Gabriele Gressner, Birgit Lahme – 1 November 1992 – The molecular and cellular mechanisms of activation of fat‐storing cells (Ito cells or parasinusoidal lipocytes), a prerequisite of the fibrogenic response of injured liver, were studied by analysis in vitro of some aspects of the intercellular communication between parenchymal liver cells and fat‐storing cells.

Weiguo Zhou, Mark O. McCollum, Barry A. Levine, Merle S. Olson – 1 November 1992 – The role of platelet‐activating factor as a potential mediator of hepatic inflammatory injury associated with liver ischemia/reperfusion was investigated using a partial no‐flow model in rats in vivo. Plateletactivating factor levels of livers from sham‐operated rats and from animals experiencing hepatic reperfusion for less than 6 hr were very low.

Jaw‐Ching Wu, Chih‐Li Chen, Shou‐Dong Lee, I‐Jane Sheen, Ling‐Pai Ting – 1 November 1992 – To study the expression and localization of delta antigen during the replication cycle of hepatitis D virus, we cotransfected HuH‐7 hepatoma cells with a hepatitis B virus expression plasmid and plasmids expressing the small or large delta antigen or the entire HDV genome. The transfected cells and culture medium were analyzed on double immunofluorescence staining for delta antigen and HBsAg, on Western blotting and on Northern‐blot hybridization from 4 hr to 9 days after transfection.

Chien‐Jen Chen, Yu‐Jing Zhang, Sheng‐Nan Lu, Regina M. Santella – 1 November 1992 – Aflatoxins are well‐known animal hepatocarcinogens, but the association between aflatoxins and human hepatocellular carcinoma remains to be elucidated. A study method consisting of indirect immunofluorescence assay combined with densitometry was developed to quantitate aflatoxin B1 DNA adducts in smeared liver tissue obtained at the time of biopsy for diagnosis in 50 hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Taiwan.

Alan N. Langnas, Michael F. Sorrell, Jeremiah P. Donovan, Byers W. Shaw – 1 November 1992 – Over 12 years, 22 patients with the Budd‐Chiari syndrome were treated surgically. Eighteen underwent a mesenterico‐caval shunt (MCS); two, a side‐to‐side portacaval shunt; one, a mesentericoatrial shunt (MAS); and one, a liver transplantation (OLT). One patient died after operation from the precipitating condition, and two MCS grafts that thrombosed were restored.

1 November 1992

Volker König, Jürgen Bauditz, Hartmut Lobeck, Rainer Lüsebrink, Peter Neuhaus, Gerhard Blumhardt, Wolf Otto Bechstein, Ruth Neuhaus, Rudolf Steffen, Uwe Hopf – 1 November 1992 – From September 1988 to May 1991, 160 orthotopic liver transplantations were performed in our hospital. Twenty‐four patients had end‐stage cirrhosis caused by chronic non‐A, non‐B hepatitis. Antibodies against hepatitis C virus were documented before and after orthotopic liver transplantation in 13 patients.