Tomasz I. Michalak, Norma D. Churchill – 1 May 1988 – The extent of association between woodchuck hepatitis virus surface antigen and host hepatocyte plasma membrane in chronic hepatitis was studied. Purified membranes containing the antigen were treated with various agents which perturb plasma membrane constituents to elute woodchuck hepatitis virus surface antigen. The products from disrupted membranes were analyzed by sedimentation in sucrose gradients and tested to identify the antigen reactivity.

Wanjin Hong, Anh Van Le, Darrell Doyle – 1 May 1988 – The asialoglycoprotein receptor, the hepatic binding lectin for galactose‐terminated glycoproteins, has been isolated and characterized from human, rabbit and rat liver. Several recent studies have shown the existence of the same receptor in murine liver. However, the biochemical structure of the receptor in murine liver has not been resolved. In this paper, we describe the identification and purification of the receptor for asialoglycoproteins from murine liver.

Bruno H. Ch. Stricker, A. P. Roeland Blok, Frans H. J. Claas, Geert E. Van Parys, Valeer J. Desmet – 1 May 1988 – Fifty cases of nitrofurantoin‐associated hepatic injury and two cases of nifurtoinol (hydroxymethylnitro‐furantoin)‐associated hepatic injury reported to the Netherlands Centre for Monitoring of Adverse Reactions to Drugs were analyzed in detail. In 38 cases, a causal relationship was considered likely [i.e., “highly probable” (n = 4), “probable” (n = 23) or “possible” (n = 11)].

Kurt Zatloukal, Ruth Sohar, Elisabeth Lackinger, Helmut Denk – 1 May 1988 – Freshly isolated mouse hepatocytes were tested with respect to the induction of heat shock (stress) proteins by elevated temperature, sodium arsenite and ethanol treatment. With heat, arsenite and ethanol treatments, the synthesis of a protein with a molecular weight of 68 kD (heat shock protein 68) was predominantly elevated; arsenite and ethanol exerted their effects on heat shock protein synthesis in a dose‐dependent manner.

Bruce A. Runyon – 1 May 1988 – To assess the risk of development of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in relation to ascitic fluid opsonic activity, routine admission abdominal paracentesis was performed on 119 patients during 141 hospitalizations. Paracentesis was repeated if evidence of peritonitis developed during the hospitalization.

Jesse Berlin, Thomas C. Chalmers – 1 May 1988 – This paper examines eight published reviews each reporting results from several related trials. Each review pools the results from the relevant trials in order to evaluate the efficacy of a certain treatment for a specified medical condition. These reviews lack consistent assessment of homogeneity of treatment effect before pooling. We discuss a random effects approach to combining evidence from a series of experiments comparing two treatments.

Claudio Tiribelli, Stefano Bellentani – 1 May 1988 – Transient stimulation of target tissues by sex steriods can cause long‐lasting changes that may facilitate or alter responses to subsequent hormonal treatment. How these altered characteristics are propagated during cell division in the absence of the stimulating hormone is unknown. The human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2 was used as a model to examine the effects of estrogen on the synthesis of serum apolipoproteins in vitro.

Lewis L. Levy – 1 May 1988 – Brain computerized axial tomography scans were performed in 18 consecutive liver cirrhosis patients with chronic persistent encephalopathy (8 alcoholic and 10 nonalcoholic) in order to evaluate the incidence of brain atrophy in this pathological condition. Fifteen patients of similar age with liver cirrhosis of Child's class B but with acute episodic hepatic encephalopathy were studied in parallel.

Amos Lanir, Roger L. Jenkins, Cary Caldwell, Robert G. L. Lee, Urmila Khettry, Melvin E. Clouse – 1 May 1988 – The hypothesis was tested that human donor livers with higher ATP content and energy charge achieve better results after hepatic transplantation. Biopsies were obtained from 25 donor livers immediately prior to implantation and analyzed for adenine nucleotides using high‐performance liquid chromatography. The results were correlated with organ histology, transplant function and outcome. Significantly higher concentrations of ATP (4.22 ± 2.87 vs.

Yuji Yoshikawa, Yoichi Sakata, Gotaro Toda, Hiroshi Oka – 1 May 1988 – Protein C, one of the vitamin K‐dependent plasma proteins synthesized in the liver, was measured immunologically in normal subjects (n = 20), patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 60), liver cirrhosis (n = 60), acute hepatitis (n = 16), chronic hepatitis (n = 19), malignant neoplasms other than hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 35) and patients on warfarin treatment (n = 20).