James L. Boyer – 1 January 1987 – The discovery that bile canaliculi are capable of spontaneous contractile activity has led to their use in the investigation of the physiology of the liver cell. The contraction of a bile canaliculus is dependent on the network of actin, which is found in the pericanalicular region of the hepatocyte, and agents that inhibit actin filaments interfere with canalicular contraction. Injection of calcium directly into the cytoplasm of one hepatocyte of a cell pair results in contraction of the canaliculus.

Ralph I. Horwitz, Donald R. Bordley – 1 January 1987 – Two specialists in nuclear medicine and two trainees independently read 106 liver scans for abnormalities suggestive of metastases. The four observers made a positive diagnosis with a significantly different frequency. The overall agreement between pairs of observers was 0.83–0.87. After adjusting for the expected chance agreement, K‐values between 0.66 and 0.74 were obtained. No difference was found in the level of agreement between the two specialists or between the two trainees.

L. Zieve, F. J. Zieve – 1 January 1987 – The conventional animal model of human portal systemic encephalopathy is the dog with Eck fistula. Dogs fed standard dog chow after Eck fistula manifest anorexia, weight loss, hepatic atrophy and encephalopathy. This study was done to determine the natural history of dogs undergoing Eck fistulas when adequate nutrition is maintained with a palatable diet.

Alfredo Alberti, Patrizia Pontisso, Chii‐Shyan Lay, Yang‐Te Tsai, Kwang‐Juei Lo, Shou‐Dong Lee, Tseng‐Shing Chen, Fa‐Yauh Lee – 1 January 1987

Patricia Bernthal, Amy Hays, Ralph E. Tarter, David Van Thiel, James Lecky, Andrea Hegedus – 1 January 1987 – Forty‐nine nonalcoholic cirrhotic patients, on whom cranial CT scans were available, were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. Although none of the subjects exhibited clinical signs or symptoms of hepatic encephalopathy, quantification of the CT scan image implicated cerebral edema and cortical atrophy. In addition numerous significant correlations were observed between the CT variables and neuropsychological test performance.

Stuart S. Kaufman, R. Patrick Wood, Byers W. Shaw, Rodney S. Markin, Philip Rosenthal, Bruno Gridelli, Jon A. Vanderhoof – 1 November 1986 – A neurologically normal 3‐year‐old girl with Type I Crigler‐Najjar syndrome was successfully treated with orthotopic liver transplantation. Preoperative serum bilirubin concentrations as high as 31 mg per dl were not diminished with phenobarbital or phototherapy.

Caroline A. Riely – 1 November 1986

Nicola Tavoloni, Herman R. Wyssbrod, Mary Jane T. Jones – 1 November 1986 – To determine the mechanism and pathway of entry of polar nonelectrolytes into bile, we studied first the permeation of [3H]H2O, [14C]urea, [14C]erythritol, [14C]mannitol, [3H]sucrose, [3H]inulin and [3H]dextran across an isolated, in situ perfused segment of the guinea pig's extrahepatic bile duct. All of these molecules, except [3H]dextran, permeated the bile duct. The diffusive permeability coefficients (cm per sec per 106) ranged from 248 for [3H]H2O to 1.2 for [3H]inulin.

Andrew K. Burroughs, Francois d'Heygere, Neil McIntyre – 1 November 1986

Takashi Moriyama, Hiromu Aoyama, Shin Ohnishi, Michio Imawari – 1 November 1986 – The effects of supplementation with fibronectin on liver damage and survival in rats with galactosamine‐induced liver failure were studied.