Koichi Tsuneyama, Judy van de Water, David van Thiel, Ross Coppel, Boris Ruebner, Yasuni Nakanuma, E. Rolland Dickson, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 November 1995 – The presence of antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) is a major criterion for the diagnosis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Although it is not clear that AMA are involved in the pathogenesis of the disease, the study of these autoantibodies has enabled much information to be accumulated about the specificity of this response.

Giovanna Fattovich, Graham McIntyre, Mark Thursz, Kathryn Colman, Giustina Giuliano, Alfredo Alberti, Howard C. Thomas, William F. Carman – 1 November 1995 – Precore/core genes from hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)‐positive and antibody to HBeAg (anti‐HBe) positive individuals with active hepatitis have been analyzed to search for correlations with response to interferon before and after treatment. Pretreatment, no precore stop codon mutants were detected, even at the 3% level, in HBeAg‐positive responders or nonresponders.

Mohammed Al Edreesi, Gilles Caillé, Claire Dupuis, Yves Théoret, Khazal Paradis – 1 November 1995 – Thirty‐two children who had undergone liver transplantation were paired according to their post‐transplantation duration, renal function, and diagnoses when possible and randomized either to continue nifedipine (NIF group) or switch to diltiazem (DIL group), in addition to continuing their usual immunosuppressive medications.

Micheal D. Apstein – 1 November 1995

Joseph Wagstaff, Maureen M. Jonas – 1 November 1995 – It is now feasible to map disease genes by screening the genome for linkage disequilibrium between the disease and marker alleles. This report presents the first application of this approach for a previously unmapped locus. A gene for benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis (BRIC) was mapped to chromosome 18 by searching for chromosome segments shared by only three distantly related patients. The screening results were confirmed by identifying an extended haplotype conserved between the patients.

Thomas S. Helling, Brent M. Wogahn, Steve A. Olson, Laurie S. Evans, Bokka R. Reddy, Charles Vanway – 1 November 1995 – The liver has been judged relatively resistant to ischemia, but prolonged inflow occlusion at normothermic conditions can produce evidence of reversible or irreversible hepatocellular damage. Cytoprotective agents have been used both experimentally and clinically to afford extended viability of hepatocytes under reduced perfusion. One agent, prostaglandin E1, has been described clinically as effective in sustaining liver function under ischemic conditions.

Kazuo Tajiri, Happei Miyakawa, Namiki Izumi, Fumiaki Marumo, Chifumi Sato – 1 November 1995 – To investigate the role of nitric oxide in renal function and hemodynamics in cirrhotic patients with ascites, L‐arginine (30 g in 300 mL of distilled water), a substrate for nitric oxide synthase, was infused into six cirrhotic patients with ascites, and the effects were compared with those of saline infusion. Healthy controls (n = 5) were also studied under the same conditions.

Hiroshi Imamura, Sophie Laberge, Antoine Brault, Jean Coté, P.‐Michel Huet – 1 November 1995 – Kupffer cells (KCs) are of bone‐marrow origin. After liver transplantation, recipient KCs are supposed to replace donor KCs. On the other hand, KCs are currently hypothesized to play a major immunogenic role in acute liver allograft rejection. In the present study, we investigated the immunogenic role of KCs in acute rat liver allograft rejection.

Shinichi Iwamura, Hideaki Enzan, Toshiji Saibara, Saburo Onishi, Yasutake Yamamoto – 1 November 1995 – Sinusoidal inclusion‐containing endothelial cells in the liver were investigated with particular interest in their capacity of metabolizing immunoglobulin. Formalin‐fixed deparaffinized liver specimens were used for immunohistochemistry, and pronase digestion was proved to be effective for antigen retrieval of immunoglobulin. The inclusions in sinusoidal endothelial cells were strongly immunostained with anti‐immunoglobulin (Ig)G, IgA, and IgM antibodies in predigested sections.

1 November 1995