Gotaro Yamada, Ichinosuke Hyodo, Kazuo Tobe, Motowo Mizuno, Takashi Nishihara, Toshinari Kobayashi, Hideo Nagashima – 1 May 1986 – Subpopulations of lymphocytes in portal areas, especially infiltrating bile duct epithelia were analyzed by light and electron microscopy using indirect peroxidaselabeled antibody method and monoclonal antibodies against pan‐T (Leu 1), cytotoxic/suppressor T (Leu 2a), helper/inducer T (Leu 3a) and natural killer/K (Leu 7) and suppressor T (Leu 15) cells in liver biopsy specimens from four patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Albert J. Czaja – 1 May 1986 – A randomised controlled trial was conducted in 29 HBV carriers who had been HBs and HBe antigen positive for more than six months. Fifteen patients were treated with ARA‐AMP 10 mg/kg/ day given as intramuscular injections 12 hours apart for five days followed by 5 mg/kg/day for 23 days. The 14 controls received no treatment. Serum HBV‐DNA polymerase, and HBV‐DNA decreased in all patients during therapy. Six treated patients lost serum HBV‐DNA polymerase, HBV‐DNA and HBeAg, HBsAg concentrations decreased, and five developed anti‐HBe.

1 May 1986

Santiago Muñoz, Mackenzie Walser – 1 May 1986 – The incorporation of orally administered 1‐14C‐α‐ketoisocaproate into the leucine of proteins in rats was compared with the incorporation of [3H]leucine itself administered simultaneously and expressed as a ratio, R. This ratio in whole body protein has been shown to be approximately equal to the nutritional efficiency of α‐ketoisocaproate as a dietary substitute for leucine.

Gregory J. Gores, Louis J. Kost, Nicholas F. Larusso – 1 May 1986

I. James Sarfeh, A. Tarnawski – 1 May 1986 – This paper reports the incidence and natural history of macroscopic gastritis in a series of 127 consecutive patients with portal hypertension of various aetiologies. Gastritis was observed endoscopically in 65 patients (51%) and was of two main types. Twenty eight patients had severe or persistent gastritis which caused clinically significant bleeding on 80 occasions and accounted for 25% of the bleeds from all sources. The remainder had mild gastritis.

Massimo Pignatelli, Jenny Waters, Dave Brown, Andrew Lever, Sten Iwarson, Zsuzsa Schaff, Robert Gerety, Howard C. Thomas – 1 May 1986 – In a chimpanzee model of acute type B hepatitis, at the time of onset of hepatitis B virus replication and before the development of immunity to hepatitis B virus, interferon is present in the plasma. This is followed by an increase in the display of HLA class I, but not class II proteins, on the hepatocyte membrane.

Shakuntla Seetharam, Norman L. Sussman, Tsugikazu Komoda, David H. Alpers – 1 May 1986 – Alkaline phosphatase activity in the liver and intestine increases after bile duct ligation, reportedly by increased enzyme synthesis. To ascertain the mechanism of this increased synthesis in the absence of a cDNA clone encoding the enzyme, we have estimated the concentration of liver and intestinal alkaline phosphatase mRNA by translational analysis. Monospecific antiserum to rat placental alkaline phosphatase was raised.

Thierry Frébourg, Bertrand Delpech, Eric Bercoff, Jacques Senant, Philippe Bertrand, Yves Deugnier, Jacques Bourreille – 1 May 1986 – It has been suggested that glycosaminoglycans are involved in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. Furthermore, recent studies have reported that one of them, hyaluronate, was mainly taken up and degraded by the liver. Using an enzymoimmunological assay, based on hyaluronate‐hyaluronectin interaction, serum levels of hyaluronate were measured in 113 patients with various liver diseases.

Mauro Bernardi, Rossana De Palma, Franco Trevisani, Costanza Santini, Daniela Patrono, Roberto Motta, Donatella Servadei, Govanni Gasbarrini – 1 May 1986 – Muzolimine is a loop diuretic with both the dosedepend increasing effectiveness of loop diurexctics and the long‐lasting effect of thiazides. This is a potential advantage in the treatment of ascites in advanced cirrhosis since these patients have a low tolerance to sudden reductions of blood volume.