G R Locke, T M Therneau, J Ludwig, E R Dickson, K D Lindor – 1 January 1996 – Histological staging is used for stratification and assessment of treatment efficacy in therapeutic trials for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Knowledge of the rate of progression of the histological changes would be helpful in the design (duration) and conduct of clinical trials. The histological stages were recorded for liver biopsies performed annually on 222 patients during a randomized, placebo‐ controlled clinical trial in which therapy with D‐penicillamine (DPCA) was shown to be ineffective.

P Nagy, H C Bisgaard, E Santoni‐Rugiu, S S Thorgeirsson – 1 January 1996 – Expression of several growth factors is elevated in rat liver, after induction of oval cell proliferation by chemical carcinogens. However, the exact roles played by individual factors are not defined. We infused and examined the effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on the proliferation of ductal and periductal cells after their activation with 2‐acetylaminofluorene (2‐ AAF).

S H Uchman, R Cesar – 1 January 1996

W. Kenneth Washburn, Lynt B. Johnson, W. David Lewis, Roger L. Jenkins – 1 January 1996 – Patients with adult polycystic liver disease and massive cystic replacement of the liver may present with severe debilitation and impairment of functional performance or, rarely, with signs of portal hypertension or hepatic dysfunction. In those patients incapacitated by severe hepatomegaly secondary to massive cystic replacement with predominantly small cysts (2 cm) without areas of parenchymal sparing, liver transplantation is a therapeutic option.

Israel Penn – 1 January 1996 – De novo cancers occurred after transplantation in 8,008 organ allograft recipients, who developed 8,531 different types of malignancy. Three hundred twenty‐four liver recipients developed 329 cancers. There were striking differences in the patterns of neoplasms observed when these were compared with 7,200 tumors that occurred in renal allograft recipients.

1 January 1996

Michael F. Sorrell, Byrs W. Shaw – 1 January 1996

J Villeneuve, M Dagenais, P Huet, A Roy, R Lapointe, D Marleau – 1 January 1996 – In cirrhosis, capillarization of sinusoids could result in impaired exchanges between the hepatocytes and the blood perfusing the liver and contribute to liver failure irrespective of the metabolic capacity of the liver. To characterize anomalies of the hepatic microcirculation, we used the multiple‐indicator dilution approach in isolated perfused livers obtained from patients with cirrhosis at the time of transplantation, and from organ donors with normal or near‐normal livers or hepatic steatosis.

Robert Cywes, P. Robert C. Harvey, Marian A. Packham, Ross Cameron, Steven M. Strasberg – 1 January 1996 – We have previously shown that part of the injury sustained by cold‐preserved livers on reperfusion is the consequence of platelet adhesion to sinusoidal endothelium. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) can reduce the injury and if so, how to maximize this beneficial effect.

R Romero, J E Lavine – 1 January 1996 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA contains consensus elements for transactivating proteins whose binding activity in other systems is regulated by inflammatory cytokines. Because HBV replicates within an environment of provoked inflammation, we speculated that the HBV core/pregenomic promoter may be regulated by cytokines produced in response to infection. To evaluate this hypothesis, the HBV core/pregenomic (C/P) promoter and associated cis‐acting elements were placed upstream of a luciferase‐encoding plasmid.