Shinzo Kato, Hiromasa Ishii, Sadakazu Aiso, Shuji Yamashita, Daisuke Ito, Masaharu Tsuchiya – 1 July 1990 – The distribution of alcohol dehydrogenase in the hepatic acinus was examined by both histochemical and immunohistochemical approaches. The immunohistochemical method using anti–alcohol dehydrogenase antibody indicated zone 3 predominance of this enzyme in the hepatic acinus, whereas a conventional histochemical method showed slight zone 1 predominance.

H. J. R. Bussey – 1 July 1990 – Two cases of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with familial polyposis coli (FPC) have recently been reported in the literature. Hepatoblastoma was also reported in five children with maternal ancestors with FPC. We report a case of hepatoblastoma in a female infant whose father has FPC as further evidence of an association between hepatoblastoma and FPC.

Marie Borum, Hans Fromm – 1 July 1990 – We studied the effect of ursodeoxycholic acid on 18 women and 2 men with primary biliary cirrhosis, mainly stages I and II. After a 3‐mo observation period, patients were randomized to a 9‐mo treatment period with ursodeoxycholic acid, 10 mg/kg · day, or placebo. Two patients on placebo left the study.

R. Batey, Harold O. Conn – 1 July 1990 – After consuming comparable amounts of ethanol, women have higher blood ethanol concentrations than men, even with allowance for differences in size, and are more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease. Recently, we documented significant “first‐pass metabolism” of ethanol due to its oxidation by gastric tissue. We report a study of the possible contribution of this metabolism to the sex‐related difference in blood alcohol concentrations in 20 men and 23 women. Six in each group were alcoholics.

Gotaro Yamada, Kouichi Takaguchi, Kazuhiro Matsueda, Hiroshi Nishimoto, Michiko Takahashi, Shigeatsu Fujiki, Motowo Mizuno, Shingo Kinoyama, Takao Tsuji – 1 July 1990 – Immune light and electron microscopic studies using monoclonal antibodies have been applied to localize HBeAg in liver biopsy specimens of 19 patients with chronic hepatitis B. Under the light microscope, HBeAg was demonstrated in nuclei, cytoplasm and on the cell surface of hepatocytes. The number of HBeAg‐positive hepatocytes correlated well with the serum levels of HBeAg (enzyme immunoassay) and DNA‐polymerase.

Tadashi Terada, Yasuni Nakanuma – 1 July 1990 – It remains unclear whether atypical epithelial lesions, including carcinomas and precancerous lesions, develop in intraheptic peribiliary glands. This question was tested in this study. One thousand livers from consecutive autopsies were surveyed and 201 livers with bile duct carcinomas or metastatic malignant neoplasms were excluded because atypical epithelial lesions of the glands were difficult to distinguish from the primary or metastatic malignant cells.

Riccardo Volpes, Joost J. van den Oord, Valeer J. Desmet – 1 July 1990 – Using monoclonal antibodies and in situ immunohistochemistry, we studied the distribution of “accessory” adhesion molecules (i.e., intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 and leukocyte function–associated antigen‐3) in 114 liver biopsy specimens with various inflammatory liver diseases and in 12 control liver biopsy samples without inflammation.

Irwin M. Arias – 1 July 1990

Patrizia Bagnarelli, Giulia Devescovi, Aldo Manzin, Italo Bearzi, Patrizia Bonazzi, Guido Carloni, Massimo Clementi – 1 June 1990 – The establishment of a new, differentiated, hepatitis B virus DNA‐negative, human hepatoma cell line (named PLC/AN/2) is described. Neoplastic liver tissue was obtained during hepatectomy in an HBsAg‐negative man. The established cell line is negative for α‐fetoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen; it has retained in vitro some of the differentiated functions of normal hepatocytes.

Philip B. Hylemon, Patricia M. Bohdan, Alphonse E. Sirica, Douglas M. Heuman, Z. Reno Vlahcevic – 1 June 1990 – The role of hepatocytes in bile acid and cholesterol metabolism has been extensively studied. By contrast, nothing is known about the role of bile ductular epithelial cells in cholesterol and bile acid metabolism. The purpose of the current studies was to establish whether bile ductular epithelial cells synthesize cholesterol, bile acids or both and to determine whether these cells are capable of metabolizing (hydroxylating, conjugating) bile acids.