Tsuneo Kitamura, Ulrike Brauneis, Zenaida Gatmaitan, Irwin M. Arias – 1 October 1991 – Bile‐canaliculus contraction in rat hepatocyte doublets is postulated to involve activation of an actinmyosin system. We examined this hypothesis by determining the relationship between canalicular contraction and cystolic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) concentration after extracellular addition of ATP or microdialysis of myosin light chain kinase or its Ca2+‐independent fragment, which retains catalytic activity.

Wilma M. Frederiks, Frans Marx, Cornelis J. F. van Noorden – 1 October 1991 – A quantitative histochemical method was developed for the demonstration in rat liver of the activity of phosphofructokinase, one of the enzymes assumed to be rate‐limiting for glycolysis. The procedure was based on the reduction of a tetrazolium salt as final electron acceptor and a multistep reaction using the exogenous or endogenous auxiliary enzymes aldolase, triosephosphate isomerase and glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase.

Steven F. Bronk, Gregory J. Gores – 1 October 1991 – The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between cytosolic pH and vesicular pH during ATP depletion. Using digitized video microscopy and single, cultured rat hepatocytes, cytosolic pH and vesicular pH were quantitated by ratio imaging of BCECF (2′, 7′ biscarboxyethyl‐5, 6‐carboxyfluorescein) fluorescence and fluoresceindextran fluorescence, respectively. Basal value for cytosolic pH was 7.26 and basal value for vesicular pH was 4.86.

1 October 1991

1 October 1991

1 October 1991

Robert Safirstein, Marvin F. Levitt – 1 October 1991

Stephen Webster, Jeanne Gottstein, Andres T. Blei, Robert Levy – 1 October 1991 – Brain edema and intracranial hypertension are a major cause of death in fulminant hepatic failure. We have shown that brain water measured in rats after hepatic devascularization (portacaval anastomosis followed in 24 to 48 hr by ligation of the hepatic artery) increases with the progression of encephalopathy. In this study, we examined whether intracranial hypertension develops in this model of fulminant hepatic failure.

Wladimiro Jiménez, Jolanta Gutkowska, Pere Ginés, Vicente Arroyo, Francisca Rivera, Joan Rodés – 1 October 1991 – Patients with cirrhosis and ascites show sodium retention and normal or increased plasma levels of atrial natriuretic factor, a peptide with powerful natriuretic activity.

Genevieve Inchauspe, Kenji Abe, Suzanne Zebedee, Marc Nasoff, Alfred M. Prince – 1 October 1991 – Three oligonucleotide primer combinations selected from the 5′ noncoding, the nucleocapsid and the putative nonstructural regions of the hepatitis C virus genome were compared in a nested polymerase chain reaction assay with respect to sensitivity and specificity for the detection of viral RNA in chimpanzeeinfected and human‐infected sera.