Paul B. Watkins – 1 February 1991 – Patients with dihydralazine hepatotoxicity have been found to have circulating autoantibodies that react with liver microsomes (anti‐liver microsome antibodies) and that are clearly distinct from anti‐liver and kidney microsomal antibodies observed in patients with tienilic acid‐induced hepatitis and in some patients with autoimmune hepatitis. The authors show that anti‐liver microsome antibodies present in the sera of five patients with dihydralazine‐induced hepatitis specifically react on immunoblots with a 53 kD protein.

Kunjo Okuda, Shujiro Sugita, Etsuo Tsukada, Yoichi Sakuma, Keishi Ohkubo – 1 February 1991 – The ultrasound and computed tomographic imaging features in a rare pancreatic pseudocyst of the liver are described in two patients. The pseudocysts occurred in the left lobe in both cases, one after a traumatic injury and the other after alcoholic pancreatitis. The possible topographical sequences with which pancreatic secretions entered the left hepatic lobe to form a cyst are discussed. (HEPATOLOGY 1991;13:359–363).

Marcello Persico, Marco Romano, Maurizio Muraca – 1 February 1991 – We present the case of a 23‐yr‐old man who had had since birth marked and sustained unconjugated nonhemolytic hyperbilirubinemia and who had had several attacks of grand mal seizures. Analysis of serum bilirubin by diazoreactive methods showed serum levels of unconjugated bilirubin as high as 445 μmol/L that were not affected by phenobarbital administration.

Kazuo Tanoue, Seigo Kitano, Makoto Hashizume, Hiroya Wada, Keizo Sugimachi – 1 February 1991 – We have developed a new method for inducing portal hypertension and esophageal varices in rats—partial ligation of the portal vein after devascularization of the circumference of the left renal vein and complete ligation of the portal vein on the fifth day thereafter. Thirty rats were separated into groups of 10, control (sham operation), complete portal ligation only and complete portal ligation plus devascularization.

Johnson Y. N. Lau, Nick Sheron, Alan G. Morris, Adrian B. Bomford, Graeme J. M. Alexander, Roger Williams – 1 February 1991 – Interferon‐α elicits antiviral and immunoregulatory activities by binding to specific receptors on the cell surface. In this study, binding characteristics of interferon‐α to peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection were studied using radioiodinated recombinant interferon‐α2b to determine interferon‐α receptor numbers and dissociation constants.

Doris Hugo‐Wissemann, Irene Anundi, Werner Lauchart, Richard Viebahn, Herbert de Groot – 1 February 1991 – Viability, glycolytic capacity and energy metabolism under anaerobic conditions were studied in the hepatoma cell lines HTC, FU5 and HepG2 and in rat and human hepatocytes using glucose and fructose as glycolytic precursors. During 6 hr of anaerobic incubation without additional substrate, viability decreased rapidly in FU5 and HTC cells, whereas viability of HepG2 cells was not significantly affected.

Santiago J. Muñoz, Murray Robinson, Bruce Northrup, Rodney Bell, Michael Moritz, Bruce Jarrell, Paul Martin, Willis C. Maddrey – 1 February 1991 – Cerebral herniation is a leading cause of death in patients with fulminant hepatocellular failure. Classical signs of elevated intracranial pressure are often absent in these patients. A reliable noninvasive method by which the presence of cerebral edema could be determined is much needed.

Mei‐Hwei Chang, Pei‐Jer Chen, Jen‐Yang Chen, Ming‐Yang Lai, Hey‐Chi Hsu, Der‐Cheng Lian, Yueh‐Giao Liu, Ding‐Shinn Chen – 1 February 1991 – In Taiwan, hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the major malignancies in children between 5 and 14 yr of age. We studied the status of hepatitis B virus DNA in the hepatocellular carcinoma and nontumorous liver tissues of eight children with positive serum HBsAg and maternal HBsAg.

William J. Lindblad, Erin G. Schuetz, Kaye S. Redford, Philip S. Guzelian – 1 February 1991 – Hepatocytes maintained on different substrata in vitro possess strikingly different morphological and biochemical features. Rounded, multicellular aggregates of hepatocytes are seen if the cells are plated onto Matrigel, a reconstituted basement membrane, whereas a flattened, monolayer of hepatocytes is observed with Vitrogen. Hepatocellular protein synthesis is much greater on the Matrigel, although collagen biosynthesis appears selectively enhanced on Vitrogen‐grown hepatocytes.

David H. Perlmutter – 1 January 1991