Giovambattista, Rosa Giovanna Simonetti, Antonio Craxí, Sonia Di Piazza, Caterina Spanó, Luigi Pagliaro – 1 January 1983 – Two hundred and twenty‐four consecutive inpatients with cirrhosis, mostly of nonalcoholic etiology, and ascites were prospectively investigated on admission for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) by culture, smear, and polymorphonuclear (PMN) counts of ascitic fluid. Positive cultures were found in 54 patients. A possible intraabdominal source of infection was apparent in five of them, all with clinically overt peritonitis (secondary peritonitis).

1 January 1983

Kenichi Kobayashi, Kenichi Fukuoka, Fumiaki Matsushita, Hideo Morimoto, Yoshinobu Hinoue, Hideo Honjo, Nobuyoshi Tanaka, Tatsuho Sugimoto, Yasuhiro Kato, Nobu Hattori, Shigeharu Ueda, Shiro Kato – 1 January 1983 – Woodchuck hepatocellular carcinoma has been successfully transplanted into nude (athymic) mice. The morphology of heterotransplanted tumor is similar to that of naturally occurring hepatocellular carcinoma before transplantation. The growth rate of transplanted tumor was very slow compared with those of other transplanted tumors. During the first month, only two tumors appeared.

Clifford J. Steer, Doris A. Wall, Gilbert Ashwell – 1 January 1983 – Coated vesicles were isolated from rat liver by a modification of the procedure described by Nandi et al. for bovine brain (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1982; 79:5881–5885). The hepatic receptor for asialoglycoproteins was shown to be an integral constitutent of these vesicles as evidenced by their ability to bind 125I‐asialo‐orosomucoid in a specific and saturable manner.

Thomas S. Edgington – 1 January 1983

Poul Schlichting, Erik Christensen, Per K. Andersen, Lis Fauerholdt, Erik Juhl, Hemming Poulsen, Niels Tygstrup, THE COPENHAGEN STUDY GROUP FOR LIVER DISEASES – 1 January 1983 – In a controlled clinical trial in 488 patients with chronic liver disease treated with prednisone or placebo, survival data were analyzed using Cox's proportional hazards model. A total of 162 variables were screened separately for prognostic and/or therapeutic effect by log‐rank analyses, whereby 46 clinical, biochemical, serological, and histological variables were isolated.

Scheffer C. G. Tseng, Edward A. Smuckler, Robert Stern – 1 January 1983 – Collagen formation is an important function of liver parenchymal cells that may be relevant to the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis. The types of collagen synthesized by cultured normal rat liver hepatocytes were examined. Cells isolated from adult rats by enzymatic dispersion of the liver were established in primary monolayer culture. Cells were then incubated with radiolabeled proline for 20 hr in the presence of ascorbate and the lathrogen β‐aminopropionitrile.

Gary A. Levy, Peggy J. Macphee, Lai Sum Fung, Murray M. Fisher, Aron M. Rappaport – 1 January 1983 – Mouse hepatitis virus type 3 infection results in strain‐dependent liver disease. The effects of mouse hepatitis virus type 3 on the microcirculation of the liver in both fully susceptible (Balb/cJ) and fully resistant (A/J) mice were studied. In Balb/cJ mice, 6 to 12 hr following infection, abnormalities in liver blood flow were observed which consisted of granular blood flow in both terminal hepatic and terminal portal venules.

Janet D. Elashoff – 1 January 1983

Jacques Scotto, Michelle Hadchouel, Christiane Hery, Jeannine Yvart, Pierre Tiollais, Christian Brechot – 1 January 1983 – A simplified spot method for determination in serum of hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) by molecular hybridization is proposed. For simultaneous testing of 30 serum samples, it reduced to about 1 hr the duration of the steps preceding hybridization proper. The method also greatly reduced the loss of DNA during these steps and allowed more sensitive detection in samples of only 25 or 50 m̈1.