Ansgar W. Lohse, Michael Manns, Hans‐Peter Dienes, Karl‐Hermann Meyer Zum Büschenfelde, Irun R. Cohen – 1 January 1990 – This study describes a murine model of autoimmune hepatitis: experimental autoimmune hepatitis. Experimental autoimmune hepatitis could be induced most effectively in male C57BL/6 mice by intraperitoneal immunization with the 100,000 g superantant of syngeneic liver homogenate (S‐100) in complete Freund's adjuvant. BALB/C and C3H mice were less susceptible than C57BL/6 mice. Experimental autoimmune hepatitis could not be induced in Lewis rats.

James K. Stoller, Douglas Moodie, William A. Schiavone, David Vogt, Thomas Broughan, Eugene Winkelman, Patrice K. Rehm, William D. Carey – 1 January 1990 – This report describes a patient with marked hypoxemia caused by intrapulmonary shunt associated with primary biliary cirrhosis. Liver transplantation resulted in resolution of digital clubbing and reduction of intrapulmonary shunt as demonstrated by normalization of room air arterial blood gases, reduction in shunt fraction and normalization of the indocyanin‐enhanced echocardiogram and perfusion lung scan.

Robert S. Britton, Rosemary O'Neill, Bruce R. Bacon – 1 January 1990 – Peroxidative decomposition of mitochondrial membrane phospholipids with subsequent mitochondrial dysfunctin is a postulated mechanism of liver cell injury in parenchymal iron overload. Malondialdehyde is formed when polyunsaturated fatty acids of membrane phospholipids undergo peroxidative decomposition, and it is metabolized by aldehyde dehydrogenase. We studied mitochondrial metabolism of malondialdehyde in rats with chronic dietary iron overload.

Jill E. Maddison, Dorothy K. Leong, Peter R. Dodd, Graham A. R. Johnston – 1 January 1990 – Significant discrepancy exists between radioreceptor and high‐performance liquid chromatographic estimates of plasma GABA concentrations in animal models of hepatic encephalopathy. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is the presence in plasma of a substance that can inhibit [3H]‐GABA binding but is not GABA itself.

Yvon Calmus, Pierre Gane, Philippe Rouger, Raoul Poupon – 1 January 1990 – Aberrant hepatic expression of HLA molecules has been shown to be present in primary biliary cirrhosis and may play a determining role in the pathogenesis of the disease. We have studied the effect of the long‐term administration of ursodeoxycholic acid on hepatic HLA expression. Nine untreated patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, eight patients treated for at least a year with ursodeoxycholic acid and eight control subjects without hepatobiliary disease were compared.

Harold S. Margolis, Omana V. Nainan – 1 January 1990 – Circulating immune complexes were isolated by conglutinin affinity chromatography during the course of hepatitis A virus infection in a chimpanzee. Characterization of circulating immune complexes showed that most of the hepatitis A virus‐specific antibody was IgM, that IgG was present and that C3d and fibronectin were also present.

Daisaku Muno, Eiki Kominami, Hideo Ishii, Koh Usui, Koji Saifuku, Yuji Sakakibara, Toshihiko Namihisa – 1 January 1990 – Most of the sera from patients with primary biliary cirrhosis contains antimitochondrial antibodies, which react with four proteins of the mitochondrial inner membrane. We reported in a previous paper that when beef heart mitochondrial inner membrane proteins were digested by trypsin, a new reactive 36 kDa fragment with antimitochondrial antibody was obtained.

Francis R. Weiner, Marie‐Adele Giambrone, Mark J. Czaja, Anish Shah, Giorgio Annoni, Shizuko Takahashi, Mahboubeh Eghbali, Mark A. Zern – 1 January 1990 – Ito cells are perisinusoidal cells thought to be a major source of collagen in normal and fibrotic livers. These cells appear to have features similar to several cell types but when cultured assume a fibroblast‐like morphology. In this study we evaluated the phenotype of both freshly isolated and cultured Ito cells by examining their gene expression.

Samuel A. Ockner, Elizabeth M. Brunt, Steven M. Cohn, Elaine S. Krul, Douglas W. Hanto, Marion G. Peters – 1 January 1990 – A previously healthy 35‐year‐old woman was seen at 37 weeks' gestation with a 10‐day history of fever, vomiting, diarrhea and malaise. Serum laboratory findings included elevation of serum bilirubin and AST, prolongation of serum prothrombin time and a positive monospot. A tentative diagnosis of acute fatty liver of pregnancy was made, and a healthy male infant was delivered by emergency cesarean section because of fetal distress.

Tsung‐Sheng Su, Ting‐Fen Tsai, Chin‐Wen Chi, Shou‐Hwa Han, Chen‐Kung Chou – 1 January 1990 – Complementary DNA of a rat brain glucose transporter gene was used to examine the expression of glucose‐transporter messenger RNA in paired human hepatocellular carcinomas and adjacent nontumorous liver tissues, as well as in human hepatoma cell lines and human fetal liver samples. High expression of a major 2.8‐kilobase glucose‐transporter transcript was seen in all hepatoma cell lines and fetal liver samples examined, whereas a much lower level of expression was observed in liver tissues.