Ding‐Shinn Chen, Juei‐Low Sung, Henry W. Kao, Mary Ashcavai, Allan G. Redeker – 1 July 1985

Thomas Zysset, Mark A. Polokoff, Francis R. Simon – 1 July 1985 – Mechanisms of alcoholic liver disease are still ill defined. We evaluated in two outbred lines of mice whether chronic ingestion of ethanol alters the lipid composition and/or enzyme activity of liver plasma membranes. Two mouse lines with different sensitivities towards the hypnotic effect of ethanol, designated long sleep and short sleep, were fed a liquid diet containing ethanol for 30 days. Ethanol intake reached 30 gm per kg per day in both lines, and serum ethanol levels were similar.

Anna Engström‐Laurent, Lars Lööf, Anders Nyberg, Torbjörn Schröder – 1 July 1985 – Recent animal studies show that endothelial cells in liver sinusoids are the main site for removal of sodium hyaluronate from the circulation. Few data with respect to hyaluronate metabolism are available in man. Serum hyaluronate levels were measured in 119 patients with liver disease by a sensitive assay. The hyaluronate level was significantly increased in liver cirrhosis, in comparison with healthy controls and with patients with noncirrhotic liver disease.

Nicola Tavoloni, Fenton Schaffner – 1 July 1985 – To determine whether hepatic artery blood flow is essential in maintaining the function and structure of bile ductules/ducts, the acute effects of hepatic artery ligation on bile secretion and hepatic ultrastructure were examined in anesthetized, bile duct‐cannulated guinea pigs.

Kazuhide Yamamoto, Igor Sherman, M. James Phillips, Murray M. Fisher – 1 May 1985 – The arterial terminations were studied by scanning electron microscopy of microvascular casts in rat, hamster and human livers. Important species differences were observed. In the rat, frequent anastomoses between the terminal hepatic arterioles and portal venules were observed, whereas a few arterioles terminated directly into sinusoids. On the contrary, no arterioportal venous anastomoses were demonstrated in the hamster and human livers.

Massimo Colombo, Giorgio Annoni, Maria Francesca Donato, Dario Conte, Dino Martines, Maria Grazia Zaramella, Paolo A. Bianchi, Alberto Piperno, Claudio Tiribelli – 1 May 1985 – To assess the value of type III procollagen peptide (sPIIIP) as a marker of hepatic fibrosis, sera from 73 patients with alcohol‐related liver disease and 30 patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis (IHC) were studied by a specific radioimmunoassay. sPIIIP was increased in 87% of 30 patients with cirrhosis, in 16% of 32 with steatofibrosis but in none of 11 with steatosis.

Aaron Lerner, Byung H. Park, Thomas M. Rossi, Emanual Lebenthal – 1 May 1985 – We measured IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies to cow's milk proteins: α‐casein, α‐lactalbumin, bovine serum albumin, β‐lactoglobulin‐a and β‐lactoglobulin‐b in the sera of 29 pediatric patients with liver disease. IgG antibodies to bovine serum albumin, β‐lactoglobulin‐a and β‐lactoglobulin‐b and IgA antibodies to α‐casein were elevated in most of the patients compared to age‐matched controls.

H. L. Mencken, Harold O. Conn – 1 May 1985

Yukio Kamimoto, Seikoh Horiuchi, Sumio Tanase, Yoshimasa Morino – 1 May 1985 – Both cytosolic (c‐AAT) and mitochondrial (m‐AAT) isozymes of aspartate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.1) appear in serum in some diseases including hepatobiliary dysfunction. The present study aimed at elucidation of the mechanism by which AAT isozymes are cleared from blood. Intravenous injection into rats of m‐AAT and c‐AAT purified from rat liver exhibited a biphasic clearance curve with an overall half‐life of 42 min and 4.7 hr, respectively.

Theresa L. Whiteside, Steven Lasky, Lusheng Si, David H. van Thiel – 1 May 1985 – Using monoclonal antibodies to surface antigens, we typed and quantitated the mononuclear cells (MNCs) infiltrating liver tissues from 23 patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis. The circulating T lymphocytes were also enumerated by flow cytometry in 12 of these patients. In blood, T lymphocytes and especially T8+ cells were decreasd. T cells were the major components of MNCs (78%) in portal tracts. Few of these cells were Tac+ or HLA‐DR+. Total MNCs (929 ± 90 vs.