Elisabeth St. Öcklin, Fred Gudat, Gunthild Krey, Ursula Dürmüller, Markus Gasser, Martin Schmid, Georg Stalder, Leonardo Bianchi – 1 May 1981 – The finding that the recently described hepatitis B (HB)‐associated delta antigen (δ Ag) is preserved in pronase‐treated, formalin‐fixed paraffin sections allowed a combined prospective and retrospective immunohistological study of its occurrence in 571 liver biopsies.

John C. Hoefs – 1 May 1981 – Serum and ascites protein concentration and ascites cell concentration alterations were determined serially during diuresis in 27 patients with uncomplicated liver disease. The total protein concentration in ascites increased from 1.38 ± 0.96 gm% to 2.86 ± 1.28 gm% (p < 0.001); the serum protein concentration from 6.26 ± 0.81 gm% to 7.24 ± 0.93 gm% (p < 0.001), and the ascites to serum ratio of the total protein concentration from 0.21 ± 0.13 to 0.38 ± 0.14 (p < 0.001).

1 May 1981

Kazuaki Kamisaka, Hidenori Maezawa, Tooru Inagaki, Kenichi Okano – 1 May 1981 – Human Z protein from liver was purified to homogeneity. The protein has a molecular weight of 11,000 and an isoelectric point of pH 5.8. Circular dichroism spectra of Z protein‐bilirubin (uncon‐jugated and diglucuronide) complexes revealed two ellipticity extrema, a negative peak at 460 nm, and a positive peak at 410 nm. Human serum albumin had a higher affinity for bilirubin than did Z protein.

C. S. Davidson – 1 May 1981

1 May 1981

Gerald F. Johnson, Anatol G. Morell, Richard J. Stockert, Irmin Sternlieb – 1 May 1981 – Hepatic copper overload inherited as an autosomal recessive trait in Bedlington Terriers is characterized by the presence of hepatocellular lysosomal granules of unusually high specific gravity and electron density which contain at least two thirds of the total hepatic copper.

Hector Orrego, Yedy Israel, Laurence M. Blendis – 1 May 1981

Suzanne Lagarde, Elwyn Elias, James B. Wade, James L. Boyer – 1 May 1981 – Freeze fracture analyses of hepatocyte tight junctions reveal interconnecting strands which represent a semipermeable blood‐bile barrier. In epithelia, strand number can be correlated with transepithelial resistance and junctional permeability, but a functional relationship is not always seen. We have devised an analytical method to measure accurately strand number as well as junction depth over a large area of junction.

Patricia Ponce, Javier Cordero, Marcos Rojkind – 1 May 1981 – Adult rat hepatocytes efficiently attach to intact connective tissue fibers prepared from normal rat liver; this material has been given the name of “biomatrix”. The cells remain alive and differentiated for at least 4 months in culture. The liver biomatrix contains both collagen and noncollagenous glycoproteins. Heretofore, the functions of the different components of the biomatrix in facilitating cell adhesion and promoting survival and differentiation of rat hepatocytes have not been investigated.