Adrian M. di Bisceglie, Michiko Shindo, Tse‐Ling Fong, Michael W. Fried, Mark G. Swain, Nora V. Bergasa, Constantine A. Axiotis, Jeanne G. Waggoner, Yoon Park, Jay H. Hoofnagle – 1 September 1992 – Interferon‐α therapy is of proven efficacy in chronic hepatitis C, but it is not universally effective and may be associated with intolerable side effects. Ribavirin is a nucleoside analog with a broad spectrum of antiviral action. We conducted an uncontrolled pilot study of ribavirin therapy in 13 patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Raymond S. Koff, Herbert L. Bonkovsky, Richard Lambrecht – 1 September 1992

Raymond S. Koff – 1 September 1992

J. Michael Henderson, G. Thomas Gilmore, Gregory J. Mackay, John R. Galloway, Thomas F. Dodson, Michael H. Kutner – 1 September 1992 – Liver blood flow and systemic hemodynamics were measured intraoperatively in 34 patients after liver transplantation. Ultrasound transit‐time flow probes measured hepatic arterial and portal venous flow over 10 to 75 min 1 to 3 hr after reperfusion. Cardiac output was measured by thermodilution. Mean cardiac output was 9.5 ± 2.8 L/min; the mean total liver blood flow of 2,091 ± 932 ml/min was 23% ± 11% of cardiac output.

Tian‐Jun Huang, Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, Pulak Lahiri, Purna C. Yerneni, Vasudeva R. Bommineni, Irwin M. Arias, Namita Roy Chowdhury – 1 September 1992 – Hepatic bilirubin excretion requires UDP‐glucuronosyltransferase–mediated glucuronidation. Patients with type I Crigler‐Najjar syndrome and mutant rats (Gunn strain) inherit deficiency of UDP‐glucuronyltransferase activity toward bilirubin as an autosomal recessive trait and, as a result, exhibit marked nonhemolytic unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia throughout postnatal life.

Paul D. Berk – 1 September 1992

Takechika Fujii, Michimori Kohno, Chisato Hirayama – 1 August 1992 – Urinary 15N‐ammonia and 15N‐urea were measured by gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry after the intravenous administration of 15N‐ammonia (0.2 μmol/kg/hr) to 6 volunteers and 11 patients with cirrhosis. Urinary 15N‐nitrogen excretion as ammonia and urea was measured during the 210‐min infusion period, and urea synthesis and ammonia conversion to amino acids were analyzed with a three‐compartment model using the nonlinear least‐squares method.

Toshihiro Mitaka, Michihide Mikami, Gerald L. Sattler, Henry C. Pitot, Yohichi Mochizuki – 1 August 1992 – Colonies of small hepatocytes appeared after the culture of primary adult rat hepatocytes for 4 days in serum‐free modified Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing 10 mmol/L nicotinamide and 10 ng/ml epidermal growth factor. Each colony consisted of cells that had a single nucleus and a higher nucleus/cytoplasm ratio than surrounding hepatocytes, and immunocytochemically these cells were stained with albumin and transferrin.

Yuji Tanaka, Norio Hayashi, Akira Kaneko, Toshifumi Ito, Eiji Miyoshi, Yutaka Sasaki, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 August 1992 – Digital imaging fluorescence microscopy has been used to investigate epidermal growth factor–induced calcium responses of fura‐2–loaded hepatocytes in primary culture at the single‐cell level. Epidermal growth factor induced oscillations in cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]i) consisting of a periodic train of spikes unlike the monophasic elevation in cell suspensions reported previously.

Moritaka Goto, Yoshiyuki Takei, Sunao Kawano, Shingo Tsuji, Hiroyuki Fukui, Hiroaki Fushimi, Yoshiya Nishimura, Toru Kashiwagi, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 August 1992 – This study examines whether tumor necrosis factor and endotoxin are involved in the pathogenesis of primary nonfunction of graft and pulmonary complication after orthotopic liver transplantation. Livers from Lewis rats were stored for either 1 or 4 hr in ice‐cold Euro‐Collins solution (1‐hr storage and 4‐hr storage group, respectively). Subsequently, donor livers were implanted orthotopically.