1 September 1988

Achilles A. Demetriou, Andrew Reisner, Jay Sanchez, Stanley M. Levenson, Albert D. Moscioni, J. Roy Chowdhury – 1 September 1988 – We previously reported a method of intraperitoneal transplantation of liver cells attached to collagen‐coated microcarriers, which resulted in prolonged survival and function of the transplanted cells. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of liver cell transplantation in providing metabolic support during acute liver insufficiency induced by 90% partial hepatectomy in rats.

Nigel C. Phillips, John Rioux, Ming‐Sound Tsao – 1 September 1988 – The ability of liposomes containing a lipophilic muramyl dipeptide, N‐acetylmuramyl‐L‐alanyl‐D‐isoglutamine‐glycerol dipalmitate, to induce Kupffer cell tumoricidal activity has been investigated. Liposomal N‐acetylmuramyl‐L‐alanyl‐D‐isoglutamine‐glycerol dipalmitate was 16‐fold more potent than liposomal N‐acetylmuramyl‐L‐alanyl‐D‐isoglutamine and 2,400‐fold more potent than N‐acetylmuramyl‐L‐alanyl‐D‐isoglutamine in inducing Kupffer cell tumoricidal activity in vitro. A single i.v.

Iku Ise, Fumio Tsuda, Shinobu Aihara, Atsuhiko Machida, Emiko Takai, Hideaki Miyamoto, Yoshihiro Akahane, Yuzo Miyakawa, Makoto Mayumi – 1 September 1988 – Sera from 11 patients with fulminant hepatitis B were tested for antibodies to translation products of the pre‐S1 and pre‐S2 regions of hepatitis B virus of IgM, IgA and IgG classes, as well as of IgA1, IgA2 and SIgA, with solid‐phase enzyme immunoassays using native viral polypeptides.

Hanna Shalev‐Zimels, Zvi Weizman, Chaim Lotan, Dov Gavish, Zvi Ackerman, Abraham Morag – 1 September 1988 – To assess extent of hepatic involvement in measles, we evaluated prospectively 144 patients (ages 0.2 to 43 years) during an outbreak. Liver function parameters (AST, ALT, serum γ‐glutamyl transpeptidase and bilirubin) were determined on presentation and at 2 and 4 weeks.

William C. Duane, Donald B. Hunninghake, Martin L. Freeman, Pete A. Pooler, Linda A. Schlasner, Roger L. Gebhard – 1 September 1988 – We tested the possibility that simvastatin, a competitive inhibitor of HMG‐CoA reductase related to mevinolin, might alter cholesterol saturation of gallbladder bile. Ten patients with Type IIa or IIb hypercholesterolemia underwent bile sampling before, and again after, treatment with 20 or 40 mg per day simvastatin for 7 to 13 weeks. Mean cholesterol saturation index of gallbladder bile fell from 1.01 to 0.77 during simvastatin treatment (p < 0.01).

S. C. Arya – 1 September 1988

Jacquelyn J. Maher – 1 September 1988

Jay H. Lefkowitch – 1 September 1988 – Five cases of ovarian carcinoma with hepatoid features, three of them primary and two probably primary, are described. The tumor cells were arranged predominantly in sheets and contained moderate to abundant amounts of eosinophilic cytoplasm; varying numbers of tumor cells stained immunohistochemically for alpha‐fetoprotein.

Gabriel Garcia, F. Blaine Hollinger – 1 September 1988 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection may induce severe hepatitis and affect long‐term survival of kidney transplant recipients. Persistent viral infection has been shown to occur despite the absence of usual serologic markers. The liver and serum HBV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) status of 90 patients were studied prospectively; recently transplanted patients, both hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg)‐positive and negative, with and without liver disease, were investigated with HBV serology, serum HBV DNA, and liver histology.