Mark Feitelson, Laura Lega, Juanhui Guo, Massimo Resti, Maria E. Rossi, Chiara Azzari, Baruch S. Blumberg, Alberto Vierucci – 1 March 1994 – The pathogenesis of posttransfusion hepatitis was determined in 14 children with β‐thalassemia. All had blood samples obtained in 1980 or 1981, were vaccinated against hepatitis B virus in 1983 and had another serum sample collected in 1989. Seven children had detectable antibodies against hepatitis C virus before vaccination, and all were positive in 1989.

Moritaka Goto, Yoshiyuki Takei, Sunao Kawano, Kouichi Nagano, Shingo Tsuji, Eiji Masuda, Yoshiya Nishimura, Shigetoshi Okumura, Toru Kashiwagi, Hideyuki Fusamoto, Takenobu Kamada – 1 March 1994 – Hepatic microcirculatory perturbation is observed after ischemia/reperfusion. Endothelin‐1, a potent vasoconstrictive peptide, is known to modulate local circulation. This study was designed to examine whether endothelin‐1 participates in the mechanism of microcirculatory disturbance and damage of the liver after ischemia/reperfusion.

Michael L. Booker, Wayne W. Lamorte – 1 March 1994 – Lysolecithin has been implicated as a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of cholecystitis and cholesterol cholelithiasis. The phospholipases are key enzymes in the generation of a number of metabolites including lysolecithin, but conflicting reports exist concerning the presence of these enzymes in the biliary tract.

1 March 1994

Michael L. Schilsky, I. Herbert Scheinberg, Irmin Sternlieb – 1 March 1994 – The objective of this study was to determine the indications for and results of liver transplantation in patients with Wilson's disease on the basis of results of a survey with retrospective review of data obtained on 55 transplants performed at centers in the United States and Europe. The study group comprised 32 females and 23 males, aged 8.5 to 51 yr, with features diagnostic of Wilson's disease.

David H. Adams, Patrizia Burra, Stefan G. Hubscher, Elwyn Elias, Walter Newman – 1 March 1994 – Alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by hepatocyte necrosis associated with infiltration of the liver parenchyma by neutrophils. The mechanisms responsible for recruiting neutrophils to the liver are unknown. We report high circulating levels and tissue expression of the endothelial adhesion molecule E‐selectin in alcoholic hepatitis.

Carole Oddoux, Gerd Grieninger – 1 March 1994 – This study characterizes plasma protein synthesis and its hormonal regulation in a chicken hepatoma cell line, with particular emphasis on fibrinogen. Whereas virtually all aspects of hemopexin, transferrin and albumin production in these cells corresponded to those of cultured primary hepatocytes, fibrinogen was not secreted. Analysis of fibrinogen subunit synthesis revealed a specific defect in synthesis of one subunit, γ, correlating with a lack of its mRNA.

Hiroshi Suemizu, Shinichi Yoshimura, Noritoshi Takeichi, Tetsuya Moriuchi – 1 March 1994 – The Long‐Evans Cinnamon rat is a mutant strain that contracts hereditary hepatitis and, eventually, spontaneous hepatoma. Recently, abnormal copper accumulations in Long‐Evans Cinnamon rat livers were shown to be genetically linked to the development of hepatitis.

Yochanan Peled, Tuvia Gilat – 1 March 1994 – The formation of cholesterol gallstones is a result of an interaction between bile lipid concentration, composition and other factors. The solubilization of cholesterol in bile is affected by the nature of the fatty acids and head groups of biliary phospholipids. In this study we tried to modulate the composition of biliary lipids in the rat and hamster by means of dietary supplementation of whole phospholipids or their constituents (at 3% to 5% of food weight).

Maria Alfonsina Desiderio, Lidia Bardella – 1 March 1994 – Activity and messenger RNA levels of spermidine/spermine N1‐acetyltransferase, the rate‐limiting enzyme of the polyamine interconversion pathway, were investigated in host liver and in Yoshida AH‐130 ascites hepatoma cells as a function of tumor growth phases. Enzyme activity reached maximal values at day 10 in host liver (2.0‐fold increase) and at days 10 and 14 in hepatoma cells (4.2‐ and 5.4‐fold increases)– that is, when the cellular growth was nearly arrested.