1 April 1992

Nancy Bach, Swan N. Thung, Fenton Schaffner – 1 April 1992 – Before the availability of serological markers for hepatitis C, the morphological features of this diagnosis, which represents most non‐A, non‐B hepatitis, could not be confirmed. We examined biopsy specimens from 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 21 patients with autoimmune chronic hepatitis. Each biopsy specimen was graded on 19 different histological features. The results indicated that at the time of biopsy, the average age of patients with chronic hepatitis C was 46 yr vs. 36 yr for autoimmune chronic hepatitis.

Sadataka Inuzuka, Takato Ueno, Takuji Torimura, Seishu Tamaki, Ryuichiro Sakata, Michio Sata, Hiroshi Yoshida, Kyuichi Tanikawa – 1 April 1992 – The concentration of plasma vitronectin was determined and compared with various parameters of liver function including the blood coagulation system in patients with liver diseases. The severity of cirrhosis was graded according to Child's criteria and compared with the plasma vitronectin level.

Helmut K. Wolf, George K. Michalopoulos – 1 April 1992 – It has been suggested that in fulminant hepatitis it is the lack of hepatocyte regeneration that in the presence of an ongoing loss of hepatocytes leads to hepatic failure and ultimately determines the grim prognosis of this disease. However, little data are available concerning hepatocyte regeneration in human acute hepatitis.

Antonio M. Lacy, Miguel Navasa, Rosa Gilabert, Concepción Brü, Juan C. García‐Pagán, Juan C. García‐Valdecasas, Luis Grande, Fausto Feu, José Fuster, José Terés, José Visa, Jaime Bosch – 1 April 1992 – We studied 23 patients with cirrhosis who had undergone retroperitoneal distal splenorenal shunt without portal‐azygos disconnection more than 2 yr earlier.

Michael A. Gerber – 1 April 1992

Eldon A. Shaffer – 1 April 1992 – A 45‐minute infusion of an octapeptide of cholecystokinin (Kinevac; Squibb Diagnostics, New Brunswick, NJ) was used to measure the gallbladder ejection fraction during cholescintigraphy in 40 normal volunteers. Cholecystokinin cholescintigraphy was shown to be a reproducible test. The maximum mean gallbladder ejection fraction occurred 15 minutes after cholecystokinin infusion and was 74.5% ± 1.9% (mean ± SEM). A gallbladder ejection fraction >40% (mean – 3SD) was arbitrarily defined to be normal.

Jianjun Li, Cho‐Il Kim, Maria A. Leo, Ki M. Mak, Marcos Rojkind, Charles S. Lieber – 1 March 1992 – We recently found that polyunsaturated lecithin prevents ethanol from causing cirrhosis in the baboon. Because transformation of lipocytes to transitional cells plays a key role in hepatic fibrogenesis in vivo, and because this process in alcohol‐fed baboons was found to be attenuated by polyunsaturated lecithin, we focused on lipocytes to study the mechanism of the protective effect.

Naoko Kono, Yasuni Nakanuma – 1 March 1992 – Ultrastructural and immunohistochemical study was conducted on the intrahepatic peribiliary capillary plexus in normal livers and in those with extrahepatic biliary obstruction. In both conditions, capillaries positive for Ulex europaeus agglutinin I and type IV collagen were always present in the vicinity of the bile ducts. Immunoelectron microscopy showed the presence of type IV collagen on the basal lamina of these capillaries; Ulex europaeus agglutinin I was also positive on their cytoplasms.

A. Mieke Jonker, Freke W. J. Dijkhuis, Adriana Boes, Machiel J. Hardonk, Joris Grond – 1 March 1992 – A single injection of D‐galactosamine hydrochloride induces acute self‐limiting liver disease in rats that morphologically resembles drug‐induced hepatitis in human beings. In this immunohistochemical study we examined the localization and expression of the hepatic extracellular matrix components fibronectin, laminin, collagen type I, collagen type III and collagen type IV and of the cell surface receptors (integrins) for fibronectin and laminin.