Roger L. Martin, Kenneth F. Ilett, Rodney F. Minchin – 1 December 1991 – Previous studies in which investigators have induced the rate of polyamine uptake in vitro have used either inhibitors of polyamine biosynthesis or growth factors that induce cell proliferation. Recently, however, we have described the induction of putrescine uptake in cultured adult mouse hepatocytes and have shown that uptake is independent of both intracellular polyamine levels and proliferation.

Peter A. Burke – 1 December 1991

Petra Steindl, Andreas Püspök, Wilfred Druml, Peter Ferenci – 1 December 1991 – Hepatic encephalopathy is ameliorated by drugs acting on the central GABAA‐benzodiazepine receptor complex.

Jonathan A. Leighton, Michael K. Bay, Alma L. Maldonado, Steven Schenker, K. Vincent Speeg – 1 December 1991 – Colchicine may have benefit in primary biliary cirrhosis and alcoholic liver disease. It is currently used in patients with impaired liver function, yet little is known about its elimination in such patients. Colchicine clearance in the rat is significantly impaired in various models of liver disease. To study this in human beings, colchicine pharmacokinetics were compared in normal subjects and patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

1 December 1991

1 November 1991

Christopher P. Day, Rumaisa Bashir, Oliver F. W. James, Margaret F. Bassendine, David W. Crabb, Holly R. Thomasson, Ting‐Kai Li, Howard J. Edenberg – 1 November 1991 – Little is known about factors determining individual susceptibility to the physical complications of alcohol abuse but genetically determined differences in ethanol metabolism may be important. The oxidative metabolism of alcohol is catalyzed by alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase.

Martina Sterneck, Russell Wiesner, Nancy Ascher, John Roberts, Linda Ferrell, Jurgen Ludwig, John Lake – 1 November 1991 – We report the first two cases of apparent azathioprine hepatotoxicity occurring after liver transplantation. The two patients exhibited jaundice, elevated serum transaminase activities and histopathological features of sinusoidal congestion and centrilobular hepatocellular degeneration 17 and 61 days after transplantation. After withdrawal of azathioprine, liver test results improved immediately in both patients.

Steven H. Quarfordt, Eliana Defaria, Barry A. Landis, R. Randal Bollinger, Yasuo Yamaguchi – 1 November 1991 – Without a liver the fractional plasma removal of free fatty acid is one third and chylomicron triglyceride one half of that in the intact rat. The intestine of the anhepatic rat converted enteral fatty acid to plasma triglyceride but was unable to do the same for plasma free fatty acid.

Shuichi Seki, Hiroki Sakaguchi, Nobuyoshi Kawakita, Atsushi Yanai, Tetsuo Kuroki, Yasuhiro Mizoguchi, Kenzo Kobayashi, Takeyuki Monna – 1 November 1991 – Proliferating cells in liver specimens from patients with various diseases were detected by use of a monoclonal antibody against human DNA polymerase‐α, which is present in the nuclei of cells in the G1, S, M and G2 phases of the mitotic cell cycle and absent in the G0 phase, to clarify the kinetics and morphological characteristics of these cells.