Peter D. Siersema, René P. van Helvoirt, Diane A. M. Ketelaars, Maud I. Cleton, Wim C. de Bruijn, J. H. Paul Wilson, Henk G. van Eijk – 1 December 1991 – Hexachlorobenzene‐induced porphyria is iron dependent and characterized by the decreased activity of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase and the accumulation of porphyrins in the liver. To examine the relationship between iron and porphyrins in liver tissue, we performed a biochemical and morphological (histological, ultrastructural and morphometrical) study in the livers of C57BL/10 mice.

Joji Haratake, Masanori Hisaoka, Akiko Furuta, Akio Horie, Osamu Yamamoto – 1 December 1991 – Hepatic microcirculation in the developing stages is not fully clarified. This study aimed at clarifying the development of hepatic microcirculation, especially peribiliary vascular plexuses, in neonatal rats by corrosion cast procedures and scanning electron microscopy. Peribiliary vascular plexuses of large bile ducts at the hilus of 1‐day‐old rats showed a simple capillary network that directly poured into the portal vein.

Howard J. Worman, Jean‐Claude Courvalin – 1 December 1991

Solange Bresson‐Hadni, Mireille Rossel, Estelle Seilles, Dominique‐Angéle Vuitton, Khadija Guennoune, Bernard Hory, Jean‐Philippe Miguet, Michel Gillet, Claude Vincent, Jean‐Pierre Revillard – 1 December 1991 – Secretory component was assayed in serum and bile from 34 patients within 40 days after a first or a second (three cases) liver transplantation.

Jorge Quiroga, Inmaculada Colina, A. Jake Demetris, Thomas E. Starzl, David H. van Thiel – 1 December 1991 – The cause and timing of first liver allograft failure was evaluated in 177 patients who underwent a second liver transplant between January 1984 and December 1988. The population studied consisted of 94 men and 83 women with a mean age 41.3 ± 1.0 yr (mean ± S.E.M.). Mean first‐graft survival was 130.6 ± 22.9 days (range = 0 to 2,073 days).

C. Scott Boyer, Dennis R. Petersen – 1 December 1991 – The biochemical mechanism of cocaine hepatotoxicity is thought to involve enzymatic formation of reactive metabolites. The exact hepatocellular effects of these metabolites have yet to be established. This study was designed to monitor, in a time course after an acute cocaine dose, biochemical parameters that are important in cellular defense and homeostasis in vivo.

1 December 1991

The Prova Study Group – 1 December 1991 – The objective of this randomized multicenter trial was to assess the prophylactic effect on the incidence and severity of the first variceal hemorrhage of endoscopic sclerotherapy, propranolol and the combination of the two compared with none of these treatments in patients with cirrhosis and esophageal varices.

Antonello Pietrangelo, Emilio Rocchi, Alberto Ferrari, Ezio Ventura, Gaetano Cairo – 1 December 1991 – Although many studies have examined the regulation of transferrin, transferrin receptor and ferritin subunit gene expression in experimental systems, no molecular biological data in humans have been documented to date. In this study we simultaneously analyzed the hepatic content of transferrin, transferrin receptor and heavy and light ferritin subunit messenger RNAs in tissue samples obtained from subjects with normal iron balance and patients with primary or secondary iron overload.

Yoshikazu Murawaki, Yuka Kusakabe, Chisato Hirayama – 1 December 1991 – Lysyl oxidase was partially purified from serum by a diethylaminoethyl batch procedure in the presence of 6 mom/L urea and dialyzed against 3 mol/L KSCN. Using this method, we determined serum lysyl oxidase activity in 52 patients with liver disease and in 14 healthy controls, and we examined usefulness of serum lysyl oxidase in assessing liver fibrogenesis. For this purpose, serum lyayl oxidase activity in chronic liver disease was compared with serum levels of prolyl hydroxylase and laminin P1.