Sonia Navas, Orencio Bosch, Inmaculada Castillo, Eduardo Marriott, Vicente Carreño – 1 February 1995 – Based on the knowledge that patients with porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) usually have chronic liver disease, several authors studied a possible relationship to hepatotropic virus infections. However, the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in serum of these patients, as well as the presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐RNA in paired liver, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and serum samples in these patients has not been reported.

1 February 1995

Kevin D. Mullen, Roger F. Butterworth, John Wells, Gilles Pomier‐Layrargues – 1 February 1995

John M. Levey, Paul L. Romain, Herbert L. Bonkovsky – 1 February 1995 – Background. Essential mixed cryoglobulinemia is frequently associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. A beneficial effect of interferon alfa therapy has been reported, but we do not know whether the antiviral activity of the drug affects the clinical and biochemical manifestations of disease. Methods. In a prospective randomized, controlled trial, we studied 53 patients with HCV‐associated type II cryoglobulinemia.

Patricia A. Sheiner – 1 February 1995

Sanjay Chanda, Raja S. Mangipudy, Alan Warbritton, Thomas J. Bucci, Harihara M. Mehendale – 1 February 1995 – Acetaminophen (APAP) is a widely used analgesic and antipyretic drug that causes massive centrilobular hepatic necrosis at high doses, leading to death. The objectives of this study were to test our working hypothesis that preplaced cell division and hepatic tissue repair by prior thioacetamide (TA) administration provides protection against APAP‐induced lethality and to investigate the underlying mechanism.

Domenico Alvaro, Antonio Benedetti, Alessandro Gigliozzi, Adriano Bini, Sonia Furfaro, Cristina Bassotti, Tiziana La Rosa, Anne Marie Jezequel, Livio Capocaccia – 1 February 1995 – This study investigated the effect of Brefeldin A (BFA) on the transcytotic vesicular pathway labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in both isolated rat hepatocyte couplets (IRHC) and the isolated perfused rat liver (IPRL). To evaluate the role of the transcytotic vesicular pathway on bile secretion, the efffect of BFA on bile secretion in the IPRL was then investigated.

Juan G. Mella, Elke Roschmann, Klaus‐Peter Maier, Brigitte A. Volk – 1 February 1995 – The major histocompatibility complex class II alleles at the HLA‐DPB1 locus were investigated in 32 German Caucasoid patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and compared with those from 47 normal control patients using molecular genotyping techniques.

Eveline Boucher, Hervé Jouanolle, Patrice Andre, Annick Ruffault, Dominique Guyader, Romain Moirand, Bruno Turlin, Christian Jacquelinet, Pierre Brissot, Yves Deugnier – 1 February 1995 – Because 70% to 75% of patients with chronic hepatitis C either do not respond to or relapse after interferon (IFN) therapy, and because ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been shown to reduce aminotransferase levels in patients with chronic hepatitis, we undertook a prospective controlled randomized trial of IFN (group I) versus IFN plus UDCA (group II) in 80 patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Dominique Roulot, Hervé Durand, Thierry Coste, Jacques Rautureau, A. Donny Strosberg, Richard Benarous, Stefano Marullo – 1 February 1995 – Transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) is a cytokine involved in liver fibrogenesis. Previous semiquantitative studies of patients with chronic viral hepatitis showed that liver TGFβ1 messenger RNA (mRNA) was increased, compared with normal controls and with patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who responded favorably to interferon alfa (IFNα) treatment.