Keith S. Henley, Michael R. Lucey, Daniel P. Normolle, Robert M. Merion, Ian D. McLaren, Bruce A. Crider, Donald S. Mackie, Victoria L. Shieck, Timothy T. Nostrant, Kimberly A. Brown, Darrell A. Campbell, John M. Ham, Henry D. Appelman, Jeremiah G. Turcotte – 1 February 1995 – A double‐blind placebo‐controlled trial of intravenous prostaglandin PGE1 (40 μg/h) was conducted in adult orthotopic liver transplant recipients. Infusion was started intraoperatively and continued for up to 21 days. Patients were followed up for 180 days postoperatively.

Shamimunisa B. Mustafa, Chandrashekhar R. Gandhi, Stephen A. K. Harvey, Merle S. Olson – 1 February 1995 – Endothelins are potent peptide mediators that elicit glycogenolytic and vasoconstrictor actions in the liver. Endothelins were found to stimulate the synthesis and release of the lipid mediator platelet‐activating factor in cultured rat Kupffer cells. Endothelin‐mediated synthesis of platelet‐activating factor required extracellular calcium in that the calcium chelator, EGTA and nifedipine, a calcium ion channel blocker, inhibited platelet‐activating factor synthesis.

Akinori Kasahara, Norio Hayashi, Naoki Hiramatsu, Masahide Oshita, Hideki Hagiwara, Kazuhiro Katayama, Michio Kato, Manabu Masuzawa, Harumasa Yoshihara, Yutaka Kishida, Yoji Shimizu, Atsuo Inoue, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 February 1995 – The aim of this study was to determine whether 12 months course of interferon alfa (IFN‐α) therapy could improve the beneficial effect of IFN in chronic hepatitis C. Eighty‐eight patients were treated with natural IFN‐α for either 28 weeks (45 cases) or 52 weeks (43 cases).

Peter Simmonds – 1 February 1995

1 February 1995

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.