David Carbone – 1 October 1991 – Human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) from patients in Qidong, an area of high incidence in China, in which both hepatitis B virus and aflatoxin B1 are risk factors, were analysed for mutations in p53, a putative tumour‐suppressor gene. Eight of the 16 HCC had a point mutation at the third base position of codon 249. The G→T transversion in seven HCC DNA samples and the G→C transversion in the other HCC are consistent with mutations caused by aflatoxin B1 in mutagenesis experiments. No mutations were found in exons 5, 6, 8 or the remainder of exon 7.

Miguel A. Icarte, Margarita Pizarro, Luigi Accatino – 1 October 1991 – The hepatic transport of bile salts appears to be adaptively regulated by changes in the bile salt pool size and in the flux of bile salt through the liver. The maximum secretory rate of taurocholate increases or decreases when the bile salt pool size is modified by either oral feeding of cholate or taurocholate (up‐regulation) or prolonged bile salt depletion through a biliary fistula (down‐regulation), respectively.

Stephen Fitzgerald, Yashwant G. Deshpande, Han Q. Nguyen, Donald L. Kaminski – 1 October 1991 – The role of the enteric nervous system of the gallbladder on mucosal water absorption was evaluated by intraluminal administration of capsaicin, a selective stimulant of afferent nerve endings. It has been postulated that the neural responses of the gallbladder are peptidergic and mediated by prostanoids. Anesthetized cats underwent gallbladder perfusion with a physiological buffer solution containing 14C polyethylene glycol as a nonabsorbable tracer to quantitate mucosal water absorption.

Yukihiko Adachi, Hiroaki Kobayashi, Yoshiaki Kurumi, Mika Shouji, Motokazu Kitano, Toshio Yamamoto – 1 October 1991 – We conducted an experimental study to examine the possibility that ATP is involved in the mechanism by which bile acids are excreted through the liver canalicular membrane in opposing the concentration gradient. Canalicular membrane vesicles were purified from the livers of Sprague‐Dawley rats, and the uptake of tritiated sodium taurocholate into canalicular membrane vesicles was determined by rapid filtration technique.

1 October 1991

David A. Brenner – 1 October 1991 – Background. Cirrhosis is a diffuse process of hepatic fibrosis and regenerative nodule formation of unknown pathogenesis. Transforming growth factor (TGF) β1 induces the production of extracellular matrix proteins by liver cells and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis in laboratory animals. TGFα is a hepatocyte mitogen that participates in liver regeneration.

Juan Hidalgo, Allen Dingman, Justine S. Garvey – 1 October 1991 – Cellular and extracellular metallothionein contents of rat hepatocytes cultured in the presence of albumin (30 μmol/L) with zinc (1, 10, 50 and 100 μmol/L), copper (1, 10 and 50 μmol/L), zinc and copper (1, 10 and 50 μmol/L of each metal) or no metals in the culture medium have been measured by radioimmunoassay.

1 October 1991

1 October 1991

Nelson Fausto – 1 October 1991 – Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a plasminogen‐like protein thought to be a humoral mediator of liver regeneration. A 145‐kilodalton tyrosyl phosphoprotein observed in rapid response to HGF treatment of intact target cells was identified by immunoblot analysis as the β subunit of the c‐met proto‐oncogene product, a membrane‐spanning tyrosine kinase. Covalent cross‐linking of 125I‐labeled ligand to cellular proteins of appropriate size that were recognized by antibodies to c‐met directly established the c‐met product as the cell‐surface receptor for HGF.