Franco O. Ranelletti, Mauro Piantelli, Everardo Zanella, Arnaldo Capelli, Attilio M. Farinon – 1 October 1991 – Cytosolic receptors for estrogen and progesterone were assayed in 50 gallbladders from 29 women and 21 men who had cholecystectomies because of choleithiasis. High‐affinity (equilibrium dissociation constant, KD = 0.46 ± 0.23 nmol/L of 24 cases) estrogen receptors were detected in 20 of 29 gallbladders from women (range = 1.6 to 32 fmol/mg protein; mean ± S.D. = 10.9 ± 8.1), whereas in men only 4 of 21 specimens contained detectable estrogen receptors.

1 October 1991

Takashi Tanaka, Yoshihiro Sukegawa, Shuhei Nishiguchi, Tetsuo Kuroki, Kenzo Kobayashi, Isao Matsui‐Yuasa, Shuzo Otani, Takashi Toda, Takeyuki Monna – 1 October 1991 – The effects of a single ethanol administration on ornithine decarboxylase induction, polyamine metabolism and DNA synthesis in rat liver after partial hepatectomy were studied. Ethanol given 1 hr before partial hepatectomy at the dose of 2, 3 or 5 gm/kg body wt inhibited the increase in ornithine decarboxylase activity and that in the putrescine level in the liver 4 hr after partial hepatectomy.

John J. Brems, Jeffery Reese, Robert Kane, Donald L. Kaminski – 1 September 1991 – Cyclosporine and hydrocortisone are the main immunosuppressants used in transplant surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of intravenous administration of cyclosporine and hydrocortisone on bile flow in dogs. Cyclosporine in doses of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg · kg−1 · hr−1 and hydrocortisone in doses of 1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg · kg−1 · hr−1 were administered along with 18 μmol/min intravenous sodium taurocholate to dogs with chronic biliary and gastric fistulas.

Helmut K. Wolf, Reza Zarnegar, George K. Michalopoulos – 1 September 1991 – Hepatocyte growth factor is a protein growth factor with a strong mitogenic effect on hepatocytes. Recently, hepatocyte growth factor and hepatocyte growth factor messenger RNA have been extracted from several organs of humans, rats and rabbits. This study was undertaken to comprehensively define and compare the cellular localization of hepatocyte growth factor in human and rat tissues in detail.

Michael N. Gottlieb – 1 September 1991

Laurence A. Turka, Craig B. Thompson – 1 September 1991 – The immunosuppressants FK506 and rapamycin bind to the same immunophilin, FK506 binding protein (FKBP), and inhibit distinct signal transduction pathways in T lymphocytes. A nonnatural immunophilin ligand, 506BD, which contains only the common structural elements of FK506 and rapamycin, was synthesized and found to be a high‐affinity ligand of FKBP and a potent inhibitor of FKBP rotamase activity. Whereas 506BD does not interfere with T cell activation, it does block the immunosuppressive effects of both FK506 and rapamycin.

Rafael Bruck, Haia Prigozin, Zipora Krepel, Paul Rotenberg, Yoram Shechter, Simon Bar‐Meir – 1 September 1991 – Previous studies have demonstrated that vanadate ions mimic many of the actions of insulin in in vitro systems. Also, vanadate administered to diabetic hyperglycemic rats lowers their blood glucose levels to normal values. In this study we demonstrate that vanadate inhibits glucose output in the isolated perfused rat liver. Glucose production was suppressed maximally (about 50% to 60%), on addition of extremely low vanadate ion concentrations (0.5 to 1 μmol/L).

Kensaku Hata, David H. van Thiel, Ronald B. Herberman, Theresa L. Whiteside – 1 September 1991 – Liver‐derived lymphocytes were isolated from 40 human livers with end‐stage liver disease that were removed at the time of orthotopic liver transplantation. In addition, 10 resection specimens or whole livers removed from patients with liver cancer and seven normal livers (unused donor organs) were studied as controls. Liver‐derived lymphocytes were isolated from enzymatically digested tissue by gradient centrifugation and adherence to plastic.

Hiroshi Imamura, Seiji Kawasaki, Junji Shiga, Yasutsugu Bandai, Kensho Sanjo, Yasuo Idezuki – 1 September 1991 – A simple morphometrical method was developed using a color image analyzing system, which allowed quantitative evaluation of parenchymal liver cell volume and total hepatocyte number in cirrhotic patients. With this method, we estimated these values in 29 cirrhotic patients who underwent hepatic resection (nine cases) or nonshunting operation (20 cases).